Ranch of No Return
by LuckyLadybug
Summary: CONCLUDED WITH CHAPTER 20! The YGO gang is on their way to Boston when an unexpected detour plunges them into more chaos and calamity! Kind reviews are always welcome.
1. Crash!

Yu-Gi-Oh!  
  
Ranch of No Return  
  
By Lucky_Ladybug  
  
Notes: This story is mine, the characters are not, and this isn't yaoi! Just the usual disclaimers XD Oh! And parts of chapter one were borrowed from an RP with Emerald Dragyn RC ^__^  
  
"Well," Joey grinned as the small airplane took flight from San Francisco International Airport, "it looks like we are Boston bound!"  
  
"Or we will be, if nothing goes wrong," Mai remarked dryly.  
  
"Hey," Joey shrugged, "what's the worst that could happen?!"  
  
The plane gave a violent lurch, sending everyone pitching forward into the backs of the seats in front of them.  
  
"You always have to ask that, don't you?" Tristan sighed.  
  
Joey gave him a smoldering look and didn't reply.  
  
"It's strange that there's not many people on board," Tea mused, glancing around. Other than her and all of her friends, there were only five others traveling in the jet.  
  
"That sound is also pretty strange," Yugi exclaimed, blinking as he heard it again. "What is that?!"  
  
"Oh man," Joey groaned as the overhead baggage door fell open and a black-and-white cat leaped out, "Oreo snuck out of the cage she was supposed to be ridin' in!! That sound must've been muffled meowing!"  
  
Bakura chuckled merrily as the kitty leaped into his arms and purred like a motorboat. "Oh, she's really no trouble at all, you know," he said as the cat licked his cheek.  
  
"She just adores you and your Yami, doesn't she." Mai flipped her hair and watched with some amusement as Oreo ran to Yami Bakura, who had tilted his chair back and was peacefully sleeping. The feline gracefully landed in his lap and purred loudly as she walked up onto his chest and settled down to take a nap herself.  
  
A bright flash lit up the area for one brief moment and Joey smirked as the Polaroid picture emerged from his camera and began to develop. "Here's one for the scrapbooks!" he grinned mischievously.  
  
"Somehow I have the feeling that Yami Bakura won't be too fond of that page," Marik laughed.  
  
"Your Yami sure seems to be able to snooze through anything," Tristan said to Bakura, watching as Oreo kneaded her paws into the thief's chest without him even rousing.  
  
"It certainly seems that way, doesn't it," Bakura agreed.  
  
Abruptly the plane dropped again, more violently this time.  
  
"What's happening?!" Mokuba gasped. "This doesn't seem like any kind of turbulence!"  
  
Seto, who had been doing work on his laptop, now unbuckled his seatbelt and got up. "I'm going to go ask what's happening," he declared coldly, heading toward the cockpit.  
  
The plane rocked to one side, sending the young businessman flying across the floor.  
  
Joey blinked. "Learnin' gymnastics, Kaiba?" he joked when he saw the strange position the other boy had fallen in.  
  
Ignoring him, Seto stood up once more and went to the cockpit door. Throwing it open, he surveyed the small control room in disbelief. Before long he was joined by the others, who all stared as well, unable to comprehend the scene before them.  
  
"There's no pilot!!!" Tea shrieked in horror.  
  
"And no copilot!" Yugi put in.  
  
"Or flight attendants!!" Tristan burst out.  
  
"Oh this is terrible!!" Ms. Myrvyn, a excitable millionairess, cried out. "We're all doomed!!"  
  
"We're not doomed," Seto grunted, taking the pilot's seat and applying the headset.  
  
"Seto!!" Mokuba exclaimed in alarm. "You don't know how to fly an airplane!!!"  
  
"Now he tells us," Joey moaned.  
  
"Shut up, Wheeler," Seto grumbled, flipping several switches and pulling a lever. The plane shifted wildly from side to side and then abruptly turned its nose upward, sending everyone spilling back into the cabin.  
  
Yami Bakura was awake by now, of course, and Oreo clung to him in panic as the plane did its out-of-control tricks and spirals. "WHAT IN HEAVEN'S NAME IS HAPPENING?!?!" the tomb robber screamed loudly, wincing as Oreo accidentally dug her claws into his chest in a frantic attempt to not be moved.  
  
"There's no pilot and Kaiba's trying to fly this thing!!" Tristan shot back, grabbing onto a nearby seat.  
  
"Despicable. Absolutely despicable!!" a female voice cried. The owner of the voice, Linda Owens—a news anchor for a Boston TV network—flew through the air, crashing abruptly into Rishid and knocking them both to the floor again. The Egyptian man grunted in surprise and then slowly stood up, offering a hand to Linda as well. She accepted it gratefully, getting to her feet just as the plane nosedived and sent everyone pitching forward this time.  
  
"Seto!!" Mokuba screamed in the cockpit, watching in panic as a piece of ground loomed ever closer. "Seto, we're gonna crash!!!"  
  
"Not if I can help it, kid," Seto retorted, pulling another handle abruptly and forcing the plane to pull up slightly. "Try again to get someone on the radio."  
  
Shakily Mokuba climbed into the copilot's seat and complied, grabbing the microphone and yelling into it frantically. "Mayday!! Mayday!!" the terrified boy cried, his blue-gray eyes wide in horror. "There's no pilot in our plane and my brother's trying to fly it!!" As before, he heard only static.  
  
"I seriously suspect foul play," Mako declared angrily, narrowing his blue eyes indignantly as Mokuba continued to have no success with reaching anyone.  
  
"Foul play?!" a middle-aged Irish man, Mr. O'Dover, screamed. "What a dastardly thought, young man!!"  
  
"Under the circumstances, sir, I'd be inclined to agree with him," Mai countered.  
  
"And we've seen enough mysteries in our time to know foul play when we see it!" Joey added.  
  
Grimly Seto turned to Mokuba. "Kid, I'm doing my best, but whether we crash or not it's gonna be a rough landing. Tell the others to get back in their seats if they can and then get to one yourself."  
  
"But Seto . . ." Mokuba began, not wanting to leave his brother to fly the plane by himself.  
  
"Go!!" Seto said forcefully, but just then the belly of the plane touched the ground. It bumped and skidded along, and the boy was quite aware of the ensuing loud screams from the cabin—and from right next to him as Mokuba clung to his arm in sheer trepidation.  
  
It was only a few more seconds, but by the time the plane stopped its wild swerves and turns and had settled down, everyone felt more like it had been a few hours.  
  
Mokuba was still gripping the older boy's arm, his face chalk white. At last he let out his breath and sighed in relief at the realization that they'd stopped.  
  
"Seto?" he whispered shakily. "Seto, are you okay?"  
  
At first his brother didn't reply and continued to stare straight ahead, his hands firmly wrapped around the steering device.  
  
"Seto?!" Mokuba screamed now. "Seto?!?!"  
  
The brown-haired young man blinked then and turned to look at his brother. "I'm fine, kid," he reassured the younger boy with a smile. "But we'd better go check on the others. Someone might've gotten hurt back there, especially since no one had time to put their seatbelts on."  
  
When the Kaiba brothers walked back into the cabin, everything was in an uproar. Some of the passengers were draped over seats, some upsidedown in them. Others were laying against the walls and sprawled in the middle of the floor.  
  
Mokuba ran straight to Marik, who was hanging uncomfortably across the back of a seat and looking disoriented. "Marik!!" the younger boy cried, grabbing his friend's hand. "Marik, are you okay?!"  
  
Marik groaned and slipped off the seat to lay on the floor, staring up blankly.  
  
"Marik?!" Mokuba yelped again, kneeling next to him and waving a hand over his lavender eyes. "I think he's hurt!!"  
  
Ishizu staggered up from the back of the plane, clutching her forehead in pain. Quickly she knelt next to her brother and gathered him into her arms. "He's in shock," she explained, "as I'm certain we all are in varying degrees."  
  
In a moment Marik shuddered and blinked, moving closer to his sister.  
  
"He is alright," Ishizu said in relief.  
  
Within a few minutes everyone had been checked on. Most all were conscious but in various states of trauma or injury.  
  
"Man, what really could've happened?!" Joey cried in vexation. "Why would all the plane's crew just bail out and leave us here?! Maybe it was really was some kinda plot like Mako suggested!! Maybe someone doesn't want us to get to Boston!!"  
  
Seto rolled his eyes. "That's crazy, Wheeler," he said flatly.  
  
"Well, hey, it could happen!!" Joey said defensively.  
  
Yami Bakura slowly rose up from where he had been sprawled on the floor, ribbons and glitter from Tea's overnight bag adorning his hair. He seemed unaware of this as he glanced about frantically for Bakura, but Tristan immediately noticed and promptly cracked up.  
  
"Well, it's official," Tea sighed. "He's finally gone crazy."  
  
"No, I haven't," Tristan choked out between snickers, "but look at Yami B!!!"  
  
All eyes were instantly fixed on the tomb raider, who snarled warningly and gave Tristan an infamous If Looks Could Kill glare.  
  
"Look in a mirror, for heaven's sake!" Mai burst out when the cabin erupted into laughter and Yami Bakura still looked clueless.  
  
Angrily Yami Bakura grabbed her compact and stared at himself. With an infuriated Egyptian curse he began pulling the ribbons out and then struggling to remove the glitter.  
  
"You'll have to wash that out," Tea told him.  
  
In response the thief ran to the water cooler and knelt under it, pouring the cold liquid over his hair.  
  
"Hey!!" Tristan yelled indignantly. "You're gonna get the plane wet!!"  
  
"Shut up, foolish mortal," Yami Bakura growled.  
  
Meanwhile, some of the others had begun wandering to the door and looking out, trying to get some idea of where they'd crashed.  
  
"It looks like an empty field," Yugi said in amazement, wondering just how far off course they were. He had a pretty good feeling that they weren't in California anymore.  
  
A clap of thunder sounded overhead and everyone jumped. "Whoa!! What was that?!" Tristan exclaimed, still spooked out from the whole crashing experience.  
  
"Only thunder," Mai shot back. The heavens opened up and began to lavishly sprinkle drops of water all over the area. "And rain," she added then.  
  
"Oh my," Bakura said with a blink, staring off in the distance at something.  
  
"Whaddya see, man?" Joey wanted to know.  
  
Bakura blinked again and rubbed his eyes. "Oh . . . it . . . it must have just been some sort of illusion," he shrugged now, looking completely baffled.  
  
"Come on, pal, let us in on what you saw," Joey begged, intrigued now.  
  
Bakura shook his head. "Well," the soft-spoken British boy declared, "I was certain I saw a rider on a horse a moment ago—but now they've completely vanished into thin air!!" 


	2. The Ranch

"What?!?!" Joey cried in disbelief, his jaw almost hitting the floor. "You saw a disappearin' horseman?!"  
  
Bakura managed a weak smile. "I'm sure it wasn't really there. The rain must be playing tricks on my eyes."  
  
"Man, with the crazy things we always deal with, you never know!" Joey retorted.  
  
"Maybe we should try to figure out where we are," Linda Owens suggested, limping to the door and staring across the field.  
  
"How could any of us go out in that rain?" Mai retorted, narrowing her eyes as the downpour became more ferocious.  
  
"Even though I'm sure Mai is mostly worried about messin' her hair up, she's probably got a point," Joey said, grinning mischievously as Mai glared at him.  
  
Tristan nodded. "Someone could get lost in rain that heavy."  
  
That was when they heard the galloping of hooves on the ground.  
  
"Wow, Bakura," Tea exclaimed, "maybe you weren't just seeing things! That sounds like a horse to me!"  
  
In the next moment, a man dressed in a plaid shirt and dark jeans appeared, staring at the jet in utter astonishment. "Are you folks all okay?" he gasped, seeing several of the group standing in the open doorway.  
  
"We're all fine," Yami Yugi said, stepping forward. He had come out of the Puzzle only recently to make certain of this statement.  
  
"Can you tell us where we are?" Tea asked hopefully.  
  
The man seemed to ignore her question at first and just continued to gape at the enormous airplane. "I can't believe this thing crashed down here!" he cried.  
  
"Well, we can't either," Mai retorted. "But where is here?!"  
  
Finally the man seemed to take notice of the query. "'Here' is Black Diamond Ranch, ma'am," he told her. "Deep in the heart of Nebraska!"  
  
"Nebraska?!" Joey groaned. "Oh man, I knew we were way off course!! We're tryin' to get to Boston!"  
  
"Boston, eh?" The man grinned. "That's quite a piece aways. Why don't y'all just come back to the house and we'll try to figure out what we can do for you?"  
  
"Really?" Yugi smiled, his violet eyes wide. "Thanks! That'd be great!!" He glanced around. "Um, where is the house?"  
  
"Is it nearby?" Tea wondered.  
  
"Right over that hill." The man suddenly paused and laughed. "Where are my manners today? I haven't even introduced myself. I'm Bart."  
  
The others gave their names as well and then Bart promised that he would go fetch the truck and that everyone could ride in it back to the house.  
  
"What a bit of good fortune!" Ms. Myrvyn sighed in relief. "Now we won't all die here after all!"  
  
Ishizu made no comment and instead stared ahead, lost in her own world.  
  
"Hey, uh, are you okay?" Joey asked at last, blinking in confusion.  
  
Ishizu continued to gaze off at nothing before at last snapping back to the present. "We must be wary," she said quietly.  
  
"Wary?!" Joey repeated. "Of what?!"  
  
"I cannot explain at this moment." Ishizu turned away, beginning to gather up the luggage.  
  
Joey stared at her for a moment and then went to find his trunk in the baggage compartment.  
  
Oreo meowed happily as Yami Bakura straightened up from his position under the water cooler, the bothersome glitter finally removed from his long silvery locks. As he headed out the door, the cat leaped into his arms and snuggled inside his shirt to stay warm and dry from the rain.  
  
"This is absurd!!!" the thief screamed, twitching as Oreo's whiskers tickled his chest.  
  
Bakura chuckled. "Oh, Yami, she just adores you," he replied.  
  
Yami Bakura gave him a dark look and didn't answer.  
  
****  
  
At last everyone was safe inside the cozy ranch house and sitting around a fireplace drinking hot chocolate. Oreo drank out of Yami Bakura's glass when he wasn't looking and caused Joey to completely break up laughing.  
  
"So tell me, Bart," Yami Yugi asked slowly, "I haven't seen anyone else around. Are you the one in charge here?"  
  
Bart waved his hands wildly in protest. "Oh no! Not me! I'm just one of the ranch hands. Lorelei owns the place, but she's not here at the moment."  
  
"Is there any way we could use a telephone?" Tea asked hopefully. "We need to call somewhere so that the airplane can get fixed."  
  
"Sorry," Bart replied, "but the telephone line got washed out by the storm. It should be back up in a couple of days, though," he added, trying to sound optimistic.  
  
"So we're stuck here and no one'll even know where we are or anything?!" Joey cried, looking upset.  
  
Seto was already pulling out his cell phone, but Bart sighed and shook his head.  
  
"You won't get very good reception up here, especially in a storm such as this," the man told him.  
  
"Then what are we supposed to do?!" Linda cried in frustration.  
  
"Well," Bart said after a moment, "I could get y'all set up with rooms and a bite to eat and we'll worry about contacting the outside world when the storm's over."  
  
Everyone looked at each other and sighed. At last Yami Yugi nodded slowly and stood up. "Very well," he said then. "It seems we have no other options."  
  
Bart grinned and gestured for everyone to follow him. "The guest rooms are upstairs," he announced. "Since there's so many of you, I'll probably get you into groups of twos."  
  
The end results were as follows: Yugi and his Yami, Joey and Tristan, Bakura and his Yami, Tea and Mai, Marik and Rishid, Seto and Mokuba, Mako and Mr. O'Dover, Ishizu and Linda, and then Ms. Myrvyn, Joan—an aspiring writer—and Marie—a pottery maker—all in the last room.  
  
Yugi sighed as he flopped onto his bed. "What a day," he exclaimed.  
  
Yami Yugi nodded absentmindedly, a concerned look in his violet eyes. "I'm afraid that Ishizu may be right about our need to be cautious," he said solemnly. "I only agreed for us to stay here because there are no other options at the moment."  
  
Yugi sat up, confusion obvious on his face. "What's wrong, Yami?" he wanted to know.  
  
Yami Yugi crossed the room to the door and opened it. "Have you noticed how quiet it is here?" he said, staring into the hall.  
  
Yugi blinked in surprise. "Well, yeah, I have," he admitted. "About the only sound I've heard is the rain outside. It is kinda strange that there's no one around except Bart," he mused now.  
  
"It feels more like a tomb than a ranch house," Yami Yugi stated grimly.  
  
Yugi gasped at the Pharaoh's choice of words, but as he listened to the eerie stillness around them he had to concede that maybe that comment wasn't that far off the mark.  
  
****  
  
In a couple of hours Bart went around to all the rooms and delivered trays of food, apologizing that Lorelei wasn't around to fix something more elaborate for them.  
  
"She's out at the next ranch over," Bart explained when Joey asked where she was, "but she should be back tomorrow, if the storm stops."  
  
Seto was hard at work on his laptop, trying to send an email about their predicament to his company, when there was a knock on the door.  
  
"I'll get it!" Mokuba chirped, leaping up. When he hauled the door open, he was happily surprised to find Marik and Ishizu there. "Marik!" the little boy exclaimed, hugging his friend joyfully. "I'm so glad you're okay! I was so worried on the plane!"  
  
Marik chuckled softly. "I don't remember anything about what happened directly after the crash," he admitted ruefully. "The next thing I remember clearly is Ishizu and Rishid helping me into the ranch house."  
  
Ishizu patted her brother on the shoulder, then walked on into the room to speak with Seto.  
  
The boy looked up curiously as she approached. "To what do I owe the explanation of your visit?" he demanded.  
  
"I would advise you to make certain that your door and windows are all locked tonight," she replied, proceeding to tell of her uneasy feelings about the ranch.  
  
Seto snorted. "You've probably just been on one too many mysteries with Yugi and his cronies," he said flatly.  
  
Ishizu shook her head. "You may choose not to heed my warning, Seto Kaiba, but you may be putting your brother in danger by not doing so."  
  
That got Seto's complete attention, but he still looked suspicious. "What proof do you have of any danger?" he wanted to know.  
  
"There is simply something not right." Ishizu paused before going on to reveal the most unexpected thing Seto ever thought she would say. "We were passing over where the ranch was supposed to be immediately previous to the crash. And, Seto Kaiba—nothing was there."  
  
Seto just gaped. "WHAT?!" he burst out. "That's impossible!"  
  
Marik and Mokuba, who were quietly playing Monster Capsule, both looked up in astonishment at the outburst.  
  
Now Seto narrowed his eyes and glared at Ishizu. "Look, the plane was doing all kinds of crazy things right before it went down. You were probably just hallucinating. As I recall, you did wind up with a bad headache."  
  
Ishizu sighed. "I recognized the oddly-shaped hill when we drove over it in the truck. I saw it from up in the airplane during the few seconds when it descended smoothly—and the spot beyond it where we are now was completely bare and devoid of life."  
  
"You're crazy," Seto retorted. "If it wasn't here then, it couldn't be here now."  
  
"We shall see," Ishizu said with a slow nod. "But I would not recommend wandering about alone."  
  
"I have no intention of wandering anywhere," Seto grunted.  
  
****  
  
Bakura paced his room nervously, eventually making his Yami nervous as well.  
  
"Will you stop with the blasted pacing?!" Yami Bakura screamed after about thirty minutes of watching Bakura walk across the floor off and on. "If you don't, you'll wear a hole in the wood!!"  
  
Bakura halted abruptly, blushing in embarrassment. "I'm sorry, Yami," he apologized, sitting down on the bed. "But I just can't help but feel a bit anxious. This is such a strange situation we've been plunged into. What if we're stranded here for quite some time?"  
  
Yami Bakura laid down on his bed and pulled the quilt up around himself. "Don't worry yourself sick over it. We'll be out of here tomorrow or the next day." To his vexation, Oreo climbed onto his back and rested directly under his hair.  
  
Bakura struggled not to laugh as the thief screamed in anger.  
  
"GET THIS ABSURD CREATURE AWAY FROM ME!!!"   
  
Oreo purred loud enough that she drowned Yami Bakura's voice out and then snuggled closer, placing her front paws on his neck.  
  
"I'm sorry, Yami," Bakura tried to say with a straight face, "but I don't think she's going to leave."  
  
"I CAN'T GO TO SLEEP LIKE THIS!!!" Yami Bakura yelled .  
  
Oreo rubbed against him and then leaned down to lick his cheek. The old tomb raider growled and muttered a stream of words in Egyptian before shifting uncomfortably and eventually starting to doze off.  
  
****  
  
It was late at night when Marik was awakened by a very strange sound.  
  
"Help me!" he heard a soft, unfamiliar female voice cry from far down the hall.  
  
Blinking, the Egyptian boy slowly climbed out of his bed and made his way to the door while trying not to disturb Rishid in the other bed. Inching the door open, he stared into the dark corridor and strained to hear the woman's plea once more.  
  
"Marik . . . help me," the voice whispered now, sounding unbelievably close by.  
  
"Who are you?!" Marik exclaimed, stepping into the hall. "How can I help you?!"  
  
Now he heard the voice no longer. A soft breeze wafted past, tussling his hair and blowing it against his face. After glancing about, he found that an open window was not to blame. What had happened?! 


	3. Runaway

The next morning when Yugi awoke, he found his Yami sitting in the window seat and watching out the glass pane at the ranch below.  
  
"Yami," the boy said in surprise, "have you been up all night?"  
  
"Mostly," Yami Yugi replied with a nod.  
  
"Did anything . . . strange happen?" Yugi asked worriedly.  
  
"I haven't seen anything," Yami Yugi said slowly.  
  
That was when Tea knocked on the door frantically. "Yugi!!" she screamed. "Yugi!!!"  
  
Shocked, the violet-eyed boy hurried to the door and opened it. "What's wrong, Tea?" he gasped. "You look like you've seen a ghost!"  
  
"No, but I think I might've heard one!" Tea replied shakily.  
  
Instantly Yami Yugi came to attention. "When was this?" he demanded.  
  
"Just now," Tea replied, her blue eyes wide. "Mai was in the shower, so she didn't hear it."  
  
"Well, what did 'it' sound like?" Yugi asked in concern.  
  
"Like a really painful moan!" Tea told him. "It was coming from the other side of the wall!"  
  
Without another word Yugi and his Yami both immediately ran to Tea's room and began surveying the walls.  
  
"Do you hear anything?" Tea wanted to know when she saw Yami Yugi press himself against the wood and listen intently.  
  
"Not a thing," the Pharaoh said, shaking his head. "We should find out what's on the other side of this wall."  
  
"Well, it's not an outside wall," Yugi mused, "and it doesn't connect with one of the other guest rooms . . . unless there's maybe someone else here that we didn't know about," he added in realization.  
  
"Maybe we should find out," Tea said worriedly. "Whoever it was sounded like they were in a lot of pain!"  
  
"Gosh, I hope it wasn't one of the others trapped somewhere," Yugi exclaimed then.  
  
To Yugi's relief, everyone soon gathered in the dining room unharmed. However, many of them also had strange experiences to tell.  
  
"I can't believe you actually heard some girl calling your name in the middle of the night," Mai remarked to Marik, looking concerned. "Who would it have been?"  
  
"I can't imagine," Marik replied, shaking his head. "She didn't sound familiar at all."  
  
"Oreo saw something very odd, but I don't know what it was," Bakura spoke up from where he was petting the feline, who purred loudly in happiness. "All of a sudden I woke up hearing her growling and hissing at an apparently empty chair!"  
  
"Didn't Yami B see it too?" Joey asked.  
  
"No," Bakura told him. "He was asleep, and when I tried to wake him up, Oreo immediately calmed down. It made me wonder if the presence had left because it knew my Yami could've seen and possibly identified it."  
  
Yami Bakura growled angrily and glanced about, obviously wishing that they were anywhere else instead of on this ranch.  
  
"This place just gives me the shivers!" Ms. Myrvyn declared. "I'm so glad that none of us have to stay in our rooms alone!"  
  
"Did something strange happen to you too?" Tristan queried.  
  
"Actually, yes," the heiress replied. "I saw a frightening shadow on my wall!"  
  
"Maybe it was just the moon reflectin' something," Joey suggested.  
  
"It most certainly wasn't!" Ms. Myrvyn retorted. "It started to spring at me and only stopped and disappeared when I screamed bloody murder!"  
  
Ishizu remained silent throughout all of this, but she looked immensely concerned. Quickly she exchanged a glance with Yami Yugi and then let her gaze drift to the window nearby.  
  
That was when Bart approached them suddenly and without warning. "Well, hello, y'all," he grinned. "Hope ya slept well last night!"  
  
"Oh yes, extremely peacefully," Mai said dryly, crossing her arms.  
  
One by one everyone again related their experiences while Bart listened in concern.  
  
"Can you tell us about the room on the other side of Tea's?" Yami Yugi asked him, narrowing his eyes.  
  
"Well now, I don't rightly know how to, seeing as there is no room there," Bart said haltingly.  
  
"What?!" Tea cried.  
  
"Come with me and I'll show you." Bart headed for a back stairway and gestured for everyone to follow him, which they did.  
  
As they approached the top, they all—especially Tea, Mai, Yugi, and Yami Yugi—were shocked to see that there was a panel in the wall right at the landing.  
  
"Now, we havta be careful opening this," Bart cautioned. "'Cause sometimes it can be difficult, and if you're not careful, you'll go rollin' all the way back down the stairs." With that he slid the panel open very carefully and revealed that the opening led to Tea's room.  
  
"Oh!" Yugi gasped in astonishment as they all slowly walked inside.  
  
"But I don't get it," Mai said with a blink. "Why didn't anyone see that panel in here?"  
  
Bart grinned and moved it shut. Instantly it disappeared, blending in with the rest of the wall exactly and completely. "That's why," he said. "It can only be opened from the other side. From this side, you can't even tell where it is."  
  
"Well, I know I heard something!" Tea said hotly.  
  
"Maybe Joey found the stairs and decided to play a prank by making fake moans," Tristan smirked.  
  
"Heeeeey!!" Joey retorted in irritation.  
  
Bart chuckled. "Well, I can't imagine what you could've heard, little missy," he said with a shrug as he led everyone out into the hall again. "I was right by that staircase for ages this morning, and no one went up or came down."  
  
Tea fumed, certain that Bart didn't even believe that she'd heard a thing.  
  
****  
  
After breakfast, Bart leaned back and looked out the window. "Well, storm's over," he announced. The sky was still cloudy, but it didn't appear threatening. "Hopefully Mike and Carter can get the phone line up and running before too long."  
  
"'Mike and Carter'?" Yugi repeated.  
  
"That's right," Bart drawled. "More ranch hands. They're handy with the electricity and stuff like that. Me, well, I'm only good at takin' care of the animals. Oh, speakin' of which . . ." He stood up abruptly and stared, apparently seeing something extremely odd.  
  
"What is it?" Bakura wondered.  
  
"Dangnabit!" Bart growled, heading for the door. "It's Lonestar!! He's escaped from the stable again!!" With that he ran outside, leaving the unexpected guests still at the table.  
  
"Lonestar must be a horse," Bakura remarked.  
  
"Maybe we should see if we could help catch him," Yugi suggested.  
  
"Hey, what the heck do we know about horses?" Joey retorted.  
  
Before anyone could answer him, another horrific crash echoed about and Yugi leaped up. "Well, I'm going to help!" he exclaimed. Before long the others followed him. It wasn't until much later that they realized Joan had stayed behind.  
  
****  
  
Yugi ran out into the pasture, looking about for any sign of the runaway horse.  
  
"He's over there!" Bart yelled. "The thing's a menace!!"  
  
Yugi looked to see a beautiful white stallion ramming into several heavy metal cans and knocking them over. Since he was downhill, the cans started rolling right toward him. With a gasp the boy leaped out of the way and dashed off toward the fleeing horse, but it soon vanished into the nearby woods, its hoofs galloping frantically on the ground.  
  
"That's the third time this month!" Bart said hotly, throwing his hat to the ground in frustration.  
  
"Is there anything we can do to help catch him?" Yugi asked, out of breath from running.  
  
Bart looked at him, intrigued, then up at the others. "Can anyone ride a horse?" he wanted to know. "We'll need to split up and go off lookin' for Lonestar before he gets too far away."  
  
"I can ride one," Marik spoke up. True, he had only ridden the beasts once or twice, but he was certain he could easily get the hang of it.  
  
"I can too," Yugi volunteered.  
  
Yami Yugi gave him a hard look. "I don't know, Yugi," he said slowly.  
  
"I'll be fine, Yami," Yugi smiled. "Don't worry."  
  
Eventually Bakura and Tea also offered their help and Bart quickly brought out four horses for the teens and another for himself.  
  
Joey watched with interest. "Oh, what the heck, I'll go too," he said.  
  
"We'll go in groups of two," Bart directed a couple of minutes later, "and if anyone gets lost, just holler as loud as you can. I don't want any disasters here," he said sternly.  
  
"What should the rest of us do?" Mai asked.  
  
"See how much damage Lonestar caused this time and try to mind the ranch!" Bart called over his shoulder.  
  
"Well, this should be fun," Mai said sardonically, sitting on one of the over-turned cans.  
  
Tristan just stared ahead, blinking in shock.  
  
"What is it, Taylor?" Seto asked, raising an eyebrow.  
  
"I saw someone on a horse over there," Tristan exclaimed, pointing, "but now they've just disappeared!"  
  
****  
  
As Bakura rode along on his galloping horse, he wasn't surprised when the Ring flashed and his Yami joined him—but he was definitely startled.  
  
"Yami!" he cried. "What are you doing?!"  
  
Yami Bakura sneered as he took the reins. "Making certain nothing happens to you, dolt," he snorted. "You don't even know how to ride a horse!"  
  
"Neither do you!!" Bakura screamed in terror as his appaloosa—named Firefly—suddenly burst forward with alarming speed.  
  
Yami Bakura only laughed raucously as they whipped around a corner, seeming to enjoy Bakura's discomfort. Frightened, the boy clung to the old thief frantically, not wanting to fall off.  
  
"Meow?" Oreo exclaimed suddenly, peeking up from inside Yami Bakura's shirt.  
  
"Foolish feline," Yami Bakura retorted.  
  
Joey stared at them in disbelief. "Man, I'm glad I'm not in your place, Bakura," he said firmly.  
  
****  
  
Yugi's palomino was trotting peacefully when something abruptly startled it and it stood completely still, staring ahead at apparently nothing.  
  
"What's wrong?" Yugi blinked. "Do you see Lonestar?"  
  
The palomino—which Bart had said was named Dandelion—whinnied and stamped on the ground, apparently becoming nervous at something. Suddenly it bolted forward, causing Yugi to cry out in surprise and shock.  
  
"Yugi!!" Tea gasped, immediately giving chase.  
  
**Yugi, I knew this was a bad idea,** Yami Yugi said from inside the Puzzle.  
  
~It's okay, Yami,~ Yugi returned. ~I have it under control!~ Outwardly his eyes widened and he let out a yelp as Dandelion flew over a small creek to land safely on the other side—or so he thought.  
  
From out of the woods came a dark black stallion ridden by a hooded figure in a cloak. The new arrival bore down fiercely on the exact same path and Dandelion reared up, sending Yugi flying backward into the water. As the boy looked up, coughing and sputtering, he discovered that the hooded figure's horse was about to run him down! 


	4. Framed

Yugi gasped in alarm and frantically scrambled to get out of the way, but instead he slipped and fell under the water's surface.  
  
"Yugi!!" Tea shrieked as she approached, flying off her horse and running toward the creek.  
  
The well-built, hooded figure now sailed completely over the small body of water, seeming to entirely ignore both Yugi and Tea as he did so. His jet-black stallion snorted loudly as they vanished into the nearby pine trees.  
  
Tea immediately ran to the creek's edge and looked into the bubbling water. "Yugi?" she called fearfully.  
  
To her immense relief, the violet-eyed boy broke through to the surface, coughing and gasping. He looked around in confusion. "Where did that rider go?!" he exclaimed.  
  
"He went over the creek and then disappeared," Tea said shakily as she helped Yugi out of the water.  
  
Yugi blinked and glanced about again. "Dandelion's gone," he realized worriedly.  
  
Tea nodded. "She ran off right after she threw you into the creek."  
  
Yugi was already walking over near the cluster of pine trees. "We'll have to find her," he said as he poked through the branches in search of any clues the rider may have left behind. Suddenly he bent over and removed a gold chain from a bush. "Oh," he breathed, staring at it.  
  
"That looks familiar," Tea said in surprise.  
  
"Yeah," Yugi nodded, looking worried. "I think someone's trying to frame Rishid. This is exactly like the chain he has on his cloak."  
  
****  
  
Rishid, meanwhile, was helping to pick up the disasters Lonestar had created when Linda, who had been surveying the area near the pasture, abruptly ran up and indignantly stood in front of him.  
  
"So here you are!" she snapped.  
  
Rishid looked up, startled, and with his golden eyes silently asked her to explain.  
  
"You had enough of terrorizing the ranch?" Linda crossed her arms angrily.  
  
"I beg your pardon?!" Rishid said in disbelief.  
  
"You scared me half to death!" Linda cried. "You rode by on that big black horse and purposely tried to run me down!"  
  
Rishid narrowed his eyes. "I would never do such a thing."  
  
Linda glared. "Then why did you?"  
  
"Why are you so convinced that it was he who tried to attack you?" Ishizu asked, stepping forward.  
  
"Because the guy that came after me had the same build and he was wearing this cloak," Linda replied, poking at the cape around Rishid's shoulders. "He had the hood up so I couldn't see his face, but I know it was him."  
  
Rishid looked saddened. "I am sorry someone went after you, and I am also sorry that they decided to impersonate me," he said.  
  
"Rishid has been here the entire time," Ishizu said firmly. "Everyone can attest to that."  
  
"Yeah, and even if he had gone off somewhere, we know he'd never do anything like try to run you down," Tristan spoke up as he walked past.  
  
Linda narrowed her eyes. "You're all covering for him, but I promise you that I will prove he did this," she hissed as she stormed off.  
  
"Well, she's certainly sure of herself," Mai remarked.  
  
"What a jerk!" Mokuba chimed in, looking angry.  
  
Seto, meanwhile, had wandered over near an empty building by himself when he noticed something shiny on the ground. Narrowing his eyes, he bent down to have a better look. It was a plaque of some kind, and as he read it he went chalk white.  
  
"Kaiba, you look like you've seen a ghost!"  
  
Instantly Seto whirled to find Mai looking at him with a half-amused and half-shocked expression.  
  
"What did you find, Kaiba?" the blonde girl persisted. "Is it something important?"  
  
Quickly Seto pocketed the item and stood. "It's nothing you need to worry about," he replied apathetically.  
  
Mai could see from the look in his eyes that he was still shaken. "Well, whatever it is, it looks like you're shaken up about it," she commented. "And it would have to be pretty serious to get you shaken up."  
  
"I'm not shaken up," Seto muttered, turning away.  
  
****  
  
Bakura closed his eyes tightly, not wanting to watch as his Yami steered the horse in every wild direction possible.  
  
"Yami, you're going to get us both thrown off!" he yelped.  
  
"Nonsense," Yami Bakura snorted. "I know what I'm doing!" Bakura didn't know it, but the thief had often ridden horses back in Egypt.  
  
Now the boy dared to open his eyes again and soon found that they were dashing through a cluster of pine trees. And that someone else was barreling right toward them.  
  
"Oh my!" he shrieked. "Yami!!!!"  
  
Smirking, Yami Bakura pulled hard on the reins and made Firefly leap into the air. With a wild neighing sound the appaloosa soared right over the other rider and landed just behind his horse.  
  
Bakura simply stared, his mouth hanging open, and then he turned around to look at the cloaked figure. "Is that Rishid?" he exclaimed in astonishment.  
  
Yami Bakura ignored him and tugged on the reins, signaling Firefly to move forward again. As Bakura glanced back once more, he discovered that the mysterious rider and his stallion had both departed silently, without a trace.  
  
****  
  
Marik's pony—Lightning—was moving along quite smoothly when a riderless palomino tore past, startling her and causing her to rear up. Marik held firmly to the reins and managed to steady her, whispering comforting things and stroking her mane.   
  
When the pony had finally calmed down, the Egyptian boy turned his attention to the runaway palomino.  
  
"I am certain that was the horse Yugi was riding," he muttered, climbing down from his pony and glancing about. "I hope he's not hurt."  
  
He then began calling to the palomino, and her ears pricked up at the sound of her name. Amiably she came trotting over, whinnying happily at Marik, who petted her gently and led her back over to where Lightning was.  
  
"Where is Yugi?" Marik asked quietly. "Do you know where Yugi is?"  
  
Dandelion tossed her head and whinnied again, looking back in the direction she'd come from.  
  
"Will you take me to Yugi?" Marik whispered, knowing that being calm and gentle was the best way to communicate with a horse—or with any animal, for that matter.  
  
Dandelion quickly ambled off a ways and then looked back to see if Marik was coming. The boy mounted Lightning and followed the palomino, glancing about in uneasiness as he began to have the feeling he was being watched.  
  
****  
  
It took a while, but at last all those who had gone out to search for Lonestar met up again—all, that is, except for Bart.  
  
"He must still be out lookin'," Joey said with a sigh, leaning on his horse's neck. "Man, that Lonestar must be in the next county by now!"  
  
Yugi chuckled, then sobered. "And I'm also wondering about that weird rider," he remarked, already having told the others about the frightening experience at the creek.  
  
"You really think he was purposely tryin' to frame Rishid?" Joey asked.  
  
"I don't know," Yugi admitted, toying with the gold chain in his hand, "but now that I think of it, he really did remind me of Rishid . . . and I know it wouldn't really have been him."  
  
Marik's eyes narrowed in rage. "I can't imagine why anyone would do that to him," he said.  
  
"Well, whether they were impersonating Rishid or not, I bet they were up to no good," Tea said angrily.  
  
"No doubt." Bakura blinked, his brown eyes displaying his concern. "But what are we going to do?"  
  
"I'd say we should all get back to the ranch house as soon as possible," Yugi replied grimly. "There's no telling what might be going on back there."  
  
"And we should make certain Rishid is alright," Marik added, jerking Lightning's reins abruptly. The pony immediately shot out, heading straight in the direction of the ranch house—at least Marik hoped that was where Lightning was going.  
  
"Then it's settled," Joey grinned, snapping his own reins. His horse then galloped off at an unbelievable speed, causing the Brooklyn boy to cry out in shock.  
  
Yugi had to chuckle at that.  
  
****  
  
When everyone arrived back at the ranch, the first member of their group they encountered was Mr. O'Dover.  
  
"It's a good thing you kids have gotten back," the Irishman said with a smile. "We were gettin' worried about you."  
  
"Is everything okay here?" Yugi asked urgently.  
  
Mr. O'Dover blinked. "Well, I suppose they could be better," he said slowly.  
  
"What happened?!" Marik demanded. "Is anyone hurt?"  
  
The man hesitated. "Well," he said at last, "I wouldn't be a-knowin' for certain. You'd all better put your horses in the stable and then go up to the house and find out."  
  
The teens exchanged worried glances before getting off their horses and leading them into their stalls.  
  
"I do hope everyone's alright," Bakura remarked.  
  
Yami Bakura simply leaned against the doorway, stroking Oreo's fur absentmindedly as his thoughts wandered and offered no comment.  
  
Joey grinned at him. "Startin' to like the cat?"  
  
Instantly Yami Bakura snapped back to attention. "Don't be absurd!" he growled.  
  
Oreo only purred and snuggled close.  
  
****  
  
Tristan came running out to greet them as they approached the ranch house.  
  
"Guys!!" he cried, looking out of breath and almost panicked.  
  
"Tristan!" Joey gasped. "What the heck's up, man?! Is somethin' wrong?!"  
  
"Several things, actually," Tristan sighed. "Come on and I'll tell you about it." He gestured for the five other teens to follow him and so they did.  
  
"It took me a long time to realize this, but Joan didn't go with us when we all left the house earlier," Tristan said now.  
  
Yugi blinked. "Hey, that's right!" he exclaimed.  
  
"But then, where is she?" Tea wanted to know.  
  
Tristan shook his head. "She claims that she was just settling down to work on her book when Rishid came in through the door and started rooting in all the desk drawers in the den," he said.  
  
"What?!" Marik cried in disbelief.  
  
"She never saw his face 'cause he was wearing that cloak thing with the hood up, but she still insists it was him." Tristan paused. "And Linda says that she was almost run down by him."  
  
Marik clenched his fists indignantly. "Their claims are outrageous!"  
  
Yugi held up the gold chain reluctantly. "Then I guess maybe what I was afraid of really is true," he said slowly. "That rider is purposely trying to frame him."  
  
"Where is Rishid?" Marik demanded to know.  
  
Tristan paused again and shook his head. "That's another of the problems," he said slowly. "The real Rishid's missing!" 


	5. Searching

Marik gasped, the color draining from his face. "What?!" he cried. "When did this happen?!"  
  
"I don't know," Tristan admitted. "Ishizu said he'd just disappeared."  
  
"Maybe he went out to find the man who's impersonating him," Bakura suggested.  
  
"Perhaps," Marik agreed slowly. "But wherever he is, I must find him!" With that he turned around to run off—but he was intercepted by Ishizu.  
  
"We must proceed with caution, dear brother," the older woman told him gently. "I fear that the danger in this ranch is now beginning to manifest itself."  
  
"What do you mean, sister?" Marik demanded. "Is Rishid in terrible trouble?!"  
  
"He may be, I'm afraid," Ishizu replied softly.  
  
"When did you last see him?" Yugi asked her.  
  
Ishizu hesitated, then lowered her eyes. "Not long after Linda Owens made her accusation," she told him. "We finished righting the calamities Lonestar caused and then prepared to go into the house again—but Rishid did not accompany us. He had vanished."  
  
"He wouldn't have just left for no reason!" Marik cried.  
  
"Maybe he was really shook up about being accused and everything," Joey suggested. "Heck, I know I'd be."  
  
"But where would he even go?" Tea pointed out. "We're out in the sticks!"  
  
"Have you searched everywhere?" Marik asked of Tristan, who nodded.  
  
"We've been all over the house, the ranch . . . everywhere!" the hazel-eyed boy replied. "He's just nowhere around!"  
  
Marik's eyes narrowed as he tried not to look as stricken as he felt. "He has to be somewhere," he said evenly, "and I promise you all, I am going to find him."  
  
"Find who?"  
  
The new voice wafted in to the gang as the door opened and a tall, red-headed woman stepped in, removing her Stetson hat and setting it on the table.  
  
"My adopted brother," Marik replied, proceeding to give the newcomer a description of Rishid and asking if she had seen him.  
  
"The only person I saw like that was ridin' one of my horses," the woman retorted, "but I couldn't actually see his face." She paused. "I'm Lorelei, and I own this here ranch. Bart told me about all of you and your plane crash." Lorelei stepped back and seemed to be studying each and every one of her new guests, trying to determine if they were on the up-and-up.  
  
Tristan nodded. "Yeah, that was something else," he declared.  
  
"If it hadn't been for Kaiba, we probably would've all been killed in the crash," Tea remarked.  
  
Marik looked at Lorelei, his lavender eyes bespeaking the immense worry and concern he felt for his missing brother. "I have reason to believe that the man you saw was impersonating Rishid," he said quietly, "because someone has been going about trying to frame him all afternoon."  
  
Lorelei stared, narrowing her eyes. "What?! What kind of nonsense has been goin' on here while I've been gone?!"  
  
The teens took turns explaining everything that had happened to them since their stay had began while Lorelei listened and became angrier by the minute.  
  
"I can't believe all this has been allowed to go on!" she growled, crossing her arms. "Can't Bart be responsible for just a couple of days while I'm off somewhere else?! It's not like I can be here for the ranch twenty four-seven!"  
  
"Well," Yugi said slowly, stepping forward, "Bart *did* bring us all here safely. . . ."  
  
"Heh, that's probably the only thing he's done right," Lorelei retorted.  
  
Marik turned away. "Pardon me for not staying to continue this discussion, but I must go find my brother," he said quietly, disappearing down a hall.  
  
Yugi looked after him worriedly. "He shouldn't go alone," he declared.  
  
"Yeah!" Joey agreed. "He might go missin' too!"  
  
"I will go with him," Ishizu announced calmly as she headed off down the corridor after her younger brother.  
  
Lorelei shook her head. "I can't imagine where he'd be, nor can I comprehend anyone trying to frame him," she declared. "But right now I know I'm gonna find Bart." And with that she marched off without another word.  
  
Bakura watched worriedly. "I wish there was something we could do," he said sadly. "Poor Marik and Ishizu . . . they must be so terribly upset. . . ."  
  
That was when the rest of the teenage gang finally joined them.  
  
"What have you guys been up to?" Mai asked as she approached. "And Yugi, why are you dripping wet?!"  
  
Yugi blinked. With all the action and the concern about Rishid, he had completely forgotten that he was still drenched from his fall into the creek. "Oh," he said now, "it's kinda a long story."  
  
"Where's Marik?!" Mokuba burst out. "I want to help him find Rishid!"  
  
"Marik left to go looking a while ago," Tea told him. "I'm not sure where he was going to look."  
  
Seto, who had been silent all this time—as usual—now turned abruptly, and a small, brass object fell out of his pocket.  
  
"Hey," Joey said, blinking, "what the heck?!" Quickly he bent down to pick it up before Seto could stop him. "'Lonestar, Son of Wildfire'?" he read in confusion.  
  
"Give me that," Seto growled, grabbing it away.  
  
"Wildfire?!" Mokuba cried, gawking in disbelief.  
  
"What is that thing?!" Joey demanded.  
  
"It must be the plaque from Lonestar's stall," Yugi decided, looking at Seto for the explanation as to why he was carrying it around.  
  
"I found it in the dirt," Seto grunted, heading for the stairs.  
  
Yugi and the others stared after him, but only for a moment. While that was intriguing, there were more important things that needed to be puzzled over at the moment.  
  
"Alright," Yugi spoke up then, "let's brainstorm. Where was the last place anyone saw Rishid?" He looked up at Mai, Mokuba, and Tristan, hoping they would remember something.  
  
"Well," Mai said slowly, "I saw him over by the fence leading out to the pastures. That was after Linda made her accusation."  
  
"I saw him there too!" Mokuba chimed in. "He looked really sad!"  
  
Yugi nodded slowly. "I can imagine," he said.  
  
"Being framed for crimes you didn't commit is so uncool," Tea remarked angrily.  
  
"Did anyone see him after that?" Bakura wanted to know. "I . . . I believe I saw his imposter. . . ."  
  
All eyes turned to him and he quickly relayed the story of what had happened earlier when he and his Yami had been riding Firefly.  
  
"I'm certain it wasn't our Rishid," Bakura concluded. "I can't imagine he would purposely get a black horse and pull the hood up on his cloak once he knew that was what his impersonator was doing."  
  
"You're right, Bakura," Yugi said with a nod.  
  
"Hey," Mai spoke up suddenly, "aren't we forgetting someone?"  
  
Everyone looked around, blinking.  
  
"Hey yeah!" Joey exclaimed. "Where the heck is Mako?!?!"  
  
"Oh no," Tea moaned. "Don't tell me he's missing too!"  
  
"It looks like he just may be," Tristan sighed.  
  
"No, my friends, I am still here."  
  
All the teens turned at the sound of his voice. Mako was standing in the doorway, several fish in hand and a dark cloth draped over his arm.  
  
"I was searching for Rishid, but I could find no trace of him at first," the dark-haired boy said regretfully. "I did manage to catch a few fish down at the creek, and . . ." He paused, setting the fish down and holding out the arm with the cloth. "I found this. I don't know whether it belongs to the double or to the genuine Rishid, but in any case I brought it back."  
  
Bakura took the cloth from Mako and spread it out. "It's a cloak," he realized, blinking.  
  
"And it's missing this," Yugi pointed out, holding up the gold chain. "This is the double's cloak. But how did it get down by the creek?! It wasn't there when Tea and I were looking around!"  
  
"I suppose he must have gone back," Bakura replied slowly.  
  
"But why?!" Tea wondered.  
  
Yugi shook his head in confusion. "Well, at any rate, we should all split up and keep looking for Rishid," he declared. "Even though you guys already looked all over," he said to Tristan and his group, "he couldn't have gone that far. We have to keep looking!" The short boy paused, looking sad. "After all," he continued slowly, "he could be laying hurt somewhere."  
  
The other teens nodded solemnly in agreement.  
  
"Where are the other adult members of our group, anyway?" Tea asked suddenly. "I haven't seen anything of Linda, Joan, Ms. Myrvyn, or Marie at all since we've been back!"  
  
Mai shrugged. "Oh—most all of them are holed up in their rooms," she replied. "Except for Marie. She agreed to help look for Rishid and the poor gal's probably still out looking."  
  
"And none of the others would help?" Bakura said in surprise.  
  
Tristan shook his head. "Mr. O'Dover is checking around outside, but Ms. Myrvyn, Linda, and Joan aren't gonna help out, at least not that I know of."  
  
"Well, *I* am!"  
  
Everyone looked up to see Ms. Myrvyn standing indignantly at the top of the stairs, obviously having overheard things. "Linda and Joan are the ones who really don't want to. They're afraid that he's just hiding and waiting for someone to go after him, and that he'd get rid of them if they did find him. Of course I told them that was all absolutely preposterous."  
  
Yugi smiled. "Well, I'm glad you're going to help, Ms. Myrvyn," he said. "We need all the help we can get."  
  
Seto soon came back downstairs and also agreed to assist in the search, and everyone split up into three groups of four each—Yugi, his Yami, Tristan, and Joey in group one, Bakura, his Yami, Mai, and Ms. Myrvyn in group two, and Seto, Mokuba, Tea, and Mako in group three.  
  
"We'll all meet back here in two hours," Yami Yugi directed.  
  
Everyone nodded. That was the standard time they allotted to their groups during a search of any kind on their mysteries. Of course, if someone didn't make it back within the time given, then they would also be classified as missing, lost, or in some other big trouble.  
  
"Wait just a minute, kiddo," Mai suddenly said to Yugi before they started out.  
  
"Huh?" The short boy blinked in confusion.  
  
"You have to change into something dry and warm," Mai directed him, "or else you'll probably wind up with a cold."  
  
Again Yugi had forgotten about his damp clothes, but he felt that there were much much important things to worry about now. "Oh, it's okay," he protested.  
  
Yami Yugi shook his head. "No, she's right, Yugi," he replied. "Everyone else start out. Yugi and I will catch up in a few moments."  
  
****  
  
Ishizu hurried to keep up with her brother as he walked determinedly down the long corridors of the ranch house.  
  
"Marik," she called to him when he got too far ahead, "you must stop and allow us to think things through."  
  
The younger boy paused and waited for her to catch up. "But Rishid is probably already in danger, sister!" he exploded in frustration.  
  
Ishizu laid a hand on his shoulder. "I am worried about him too," she said softly, brushing some of his long, blonde hair aside. "But I do not want something to happen to you as well, brother."  
  
Marik sighed and then clenched his fists angrily as thoughts of the imposter returned to him again. "That simply burns me up," he snarled. "To think that someone would pretend to be Rishid and go around terrorizing the other guests!"  
  
"I know it is terrible," Ishizu said soothingly. She paused. "If he went looking for his imposter, perhaps he decided to investigate the areas where the mysterious rider was seen," the Egyptian woman suggested.  
  
Marik nodded. "It is worth a try," he said, heading off in the direction of the pasture.  
  
As the two siblings swung the gate open and wandered into the meadowy area, gunfire suddenly exploded overhead.  
  
"Look out!" Marik screamed, pulling Ishizu to the ground just as a bullet hit the spot where she had been standing. Someone was shooting at them! 


	6. Mystery Voice

Marik kept his arm protectively around his sister while the bullets whizzed all around them. At last the noise died down and the two Egyptian siblings cautiously looked up.  
  
"The shooter has vanished," Ishizu said quietly.  
  
Slowly Marik got to his feet and helped Ishizu stand as well. "Why in Heaven's name would someone shoot at us here in the pasture of all places?!" the boy cried angrily. "Is it just a general warning or is there specifically something here we aren't supposed to find?!"  
  
"Perhaps we should investigate and discover the truth for ourselves," Ishizu said evenly.  
  
Marik nodded firmly and the two of them immediately set out to search the area.  
  
****  
  
As Yugi hurried to get into dry clothes, an old paper fell out of a bureau drawer and the boy stared at it in confusion.  
  
"What's this?" he exclaimed, bending down to pick it up.  
  
"What is it, Yugi?" Yami Yugi asked, coming over.  
  
Yugi blinked at it. "It's an old newspaper article," he replied, "telling about some lady's death!"  
  
Instantly Yami Yugi perked up and took the paper, reading it over seriously. "Yugi, I believe there is more to this death than meets the eye," he said grimly.  
  
Yugi pulled a shirt on and turned to look at the ancient spirit curiously. "What do you mean, Yami?" he asked, his thoughts preoccupied with thoughts of finding Rishid.  
  
Yami Yugi shook his head. "We'll talk about it later, Yugi," he replied, folding the paper and placing it in his pocket.  
  
Yugi blinked at him and then hurried out the door. "Okay," he called back as the ancient Pharaoh followed him. Please help us find Rishid! Yugi prayed fervently.  
  
****  
  
"I don't know, hon," Mai mused as Bakura poked through a room in search of secret tunnels. "I doubt you're going to find Rishid in here."  
  
Bakura shook his head and continued to explore about.  
  
A soft breeze swept by and blew the group members' hair around, causing Ms. Myrvyn to complain loudly about the draft.  
  
"There is no draft, woman," Yami Bakura growled, instantly alert. "There is a spirit among us!"  
  
Oreo pinned her ears back and stared ahead, a low warning rumble in her throat.  
  
"Bakura," a feminine voice whispered.  
  
The boy shot to his feet, his heart pounding.  
  
"What is it, kiddo?" Mai asked in confusion.  
  
"Don't you hear that voice?!" Bakura cried.  
  
Mai blinked. "What voice?!"  
  
Bakura might have decided he was crazy, except when he saw his Yami and Oreo he knew that they had both heard something as well.  
  
"Murder," the voice hissed now.  
  
"What?!" Bakura yelped. "What murder?! What are you talking about?!"  
  
"Is this boy quite alright?" Ms. Myrvyn demanded. "He acts ill!"  
  
"Murder," the voice repeated, and then the presence was gone.  
  
Bakura was pale. "What on earth did she mean?!" he burst out. "She was talking about murder!"  
  
"Murder!!" Ms. Myrvyn shrieked in horror.  
  
Bakura gasped, a new thought occurring to him. "Oh my! What if . . . what if someone has . . ." He took a deep breath and started over. "What if . . . if Rishid is . . ."  
  
"Hush," Yami Bakura snapped.  
  
"Rishid's okay, Bakura," Mai tried to assure the distraught boy. "He's okay, and we'll find him."  
  
Bakura smiled weakly. "I suppose I'm just being silly, but I can't help worrying. . . ."  
  
Mai laid a hand on his shoulder. "Hey, we're all worried," she said gently.  
  
Yami Bakura grunted.  
  
"Okay, so maybe *he's* not," Mai conceded. "But the rest of us are. You're not acting silly, hon."  
  
Bakura looked up at her. "I just can't get that voice out of my head," he whispered. "What on earth could it have meant?"  
  
Mai shook her head. "I don't know, but no one would have a reason to murder Rishid," she said at last.  
  
Bakura knew that an evil mind could find a reason easy enough, but he didn't say anything more about it. "Well," he said instead, "let's go find him!"  
  
Mai smiled. "You got it."  
  
****  
  
Tea's group was searching outdoors by the creek. They were also keeping an keeping an eye out for the infamous double, just incase he might know where Rishid was.  
  
"I don't see any sign of anyone over here," Mokuba called.  
  
Seto grunted. He was finding the whole search quite pointless, truth be told—and he was also certain that they weren't going to recover their friend . . . at least not anytime soon.  
  
Mako looked grim. He felt almost partially responsible for this, since the plane that had crashed had been on its way to Boston, where everyone had been going to help him in the search for his father.  
  
Tea, sensing his feelings, touched his arm gently. "This was no one's fault, Mako, unless someone hurt him," she said softly. "Then it would be their fault, but no one else's, and certainly not yours."  
  
Mako nodded slowly and parted the nearby bushes, again looking for any possible clues.  
  
"Rishid!!" Mokuba called loudly. "Rishid, are you here?! Where are you?! Are you okay?! Come on, answer me!!"  
  
"I don't think he's here," Tea told him sadly.  
  
"No, but maybe he *was* here," Seto said, bending down to retrieve another cloak. "This probably belongs to him."  
  
****  
  
Tristan sighed in frustration as he and Joey searched through the house, waiting for Yugi and also hoping to find some clue to Rishid's whereabouts.  
  
"Man, where could he be?!" Tristan cried now.  
  
"It's like he just vanished off the face of the earth!" Joey added, messing up his hair in complete vexation.  
  
"Hey guys," Yugi said as he came down the stairs with Yami Yugi.  
  
Both discouraged boys looked up and waved to their friend.  
  
"Hey Yug," Joey sighed.  
  
"Rishid's just nowhere around," Tristan said with a shake of his head.  
  
"Well, he has to be here somewhere!" Yugi replied defensively. "I . . . I mean, he couldn't just disappear . . ."  
  
"Hey, what the heck . . ." Quickly Joey knelt down and picked something small and shiny off the floor. "What is this thing?!"  
  
Tristan took it from him and blinked. "It looks like some kinda cross or something," he replied.  
  
Yugi hurried forward. "An ankh?" he exclaimed.  
  
"Yeah!" Joey said, snapping his fingers. "That's what it is! An earring shaped like an ankh! . . . Like the kind Rishid wears," he realized, his eyes widening.  
  
"Rishid was here?!" Tristan gasped.  
  
"It looks like it!" Yugi replied. "And maybe he's still nearby! Come on, we've gotta check all around!!"  
  
And so the teens and Yami Yugi continued their search, but to no avail. If Rishid truly had been there, he seemed to be gone now.  
  
"Man, won't we ever catch a break?!" Joey cried at last.  
  
Abruptly and without warning, the lights went out, plunging them into total darkness—as night had come on by this time and there was no light to shine through the windows.  
  
"Whoa! What the . . ." Tristan burst out in surprise.  
  
Yugi cried out as he tripped over a nearby ottoman.  
  
"Are you alright, Yugi?" Yami Yugi asked, appearing next to him.  
  
"Y-yeah, I'm fine," Yugi told him with an embarrassed smile, slowly getting to his feet.  
  
As suddenly as the lights had gone out, they now came back on, bathing the room in a soft glow.  
  
Tristan blinked rapidly and squinted as his eyes adjusted to the light again. "Hey!" he exclaimed. "Joey's gone!!"  
  
"What?!" Yugi gasped, looking up.  
  
Sure enough, the Brooklyn boy had completely vanished.  
  
****  
  
Tea, Mokuba, and Mako stared at the cloak in disbelief and shock as Seto held it up.  
  
"If this does belong to Rishid, then that could either mean that he really was here or that someone planted it here for some reason," Tea said slowly.  
  
"Planted it?!" Mokuba spoke up. "Why would someone do that?!"  
  
"Perhaps another trick of the imposter," Mako suggested.  
  
"Either way, it doesn't look good for Rishid, considering what's been going on," Seto muttered. Carefully he folded the cloak up and began to carry it in his hand.  
  
"Maybe he's somewhere nearby," Mokuba suggested hopefully.  
  
"I hope he didn't fall in the water and hit his head on a rock," Mako could be heard to mutter.  
  
The trees swayed dangerously as a strong wind suddenly whipped past.  
  
"What's happening?!" Tea shrieked.  
  
Mokuba wrapped his arms around Seto's waist frantically, his blue-gray eyes wide. "Big brother!!" he screamed, not wanting to be blown away by the strong winds—which actually didn't seem like that absurd of a possibility at the moment.  
  
Seto held him close with one arm while grabbing on to a nearby tree trunk with the other as his hair blew all over his face and into his eyes. "Don't worry, kid," he yelled, trying to be heard over the wail of the wind, "I won't let anything happen to you!"  
  
Mako grabbed for Tea just before she would have been blown backwards into the creek. "This is bad," the fisherman said grimly. "It may be an approaching tornado!"  
  
****  
  
Marik and Ishizu were quite far away from where the tornado scene was taking place. After wandering through the pasture and being unable to find anything of remote interest, the siblings wandered on ahead into a deserted part of the ranch, calling for Rishid desperately.  
  
Ishizu glanced up at the sky, which was clouded over and dark. "A storm is coming," she said quietly.  
  
"Then we must find Rishid before it arrives!" Marik replied, running on ahead again.  
  
"Marik, wait!" the older woman called, dashing after him as the boy disappeared from her view. Frantically she stopped and glanced about, hoping that Marik wouldn't become lost as well. "Marik!!" she called again, turning to her right and looking over the edge of a steep ravine.   
  
Seeing what looked like a body crumpled at the bottom, Ishizu gasped and carefully picked her way down the slope until she was on level ground again. Glancing about, she hurried over to the fallen form and dropped to her knees, then clapped a hand over her mouth in horror. "Rishid!!" she cried. 


	7. New Arrivals

Gently Ishizu turned the lifeless man to face her, her blue eyes wide and alarmed. "Rishid?" she whispered now, searching for signs of breath or a heartbeat. To her immense relief, she found both. Rishid was alive, but injured—perhaps seriously. There wasn't anything broken, but Ishizu knew that he might have a bad concussion. Unless he regained consciousness and could walk, there was no way Ishizu would be able to get him out of the ravine without help.  
  
"Please wake up," she said quietly, touching his shoulder. Rishid didn't even flinch.  
  
Sadly Ishizu looked down, wondering what she would do now. "Marik!" she called loudly, praying that her younger brother would hear her and come.  
  
The Egyptian woman carefully raised Rishid's wrist and checked his pulse. Finding it slightly slower than should be normal, she narrowed her eyes worriedly. "Rishid," she called softly, now gently touching his cheek and accidentally brushing her hand against the deep carvings there.  
  
Knowing that it wasn't likely that Rishid would be able to revive on his own anytime soon, Ishizu continued trying to wake him up by rubbing his wrists and neck, without much luck.  
  
"Sister?"  
  
Ishizu looked up to see Marik standing up at the top of the ravine, a horrified look in his lavender eyes.  
  
"Sister, what happened?!" he screamed, leaning over the edge.  
  
"I do not know," Ishizu replied grimly. "But Rishid is hurt. Someone may have pushed him off the ledge. Be careful that you don't fall, Marik."  
  
Marik gasped in horror and cautiously picked his way down to the bottom, collapsing to his knees next to his adopted brother. "Rishid!!" he cried in desperation, gently pulling the man into his arms.  
  
Abruptly Ishizu froze, sensing another presence nearby. "Marik," she whispered urgently. "We must take Rishid and leave at once."  
  
****  
  
"Joey!!" Tristan called loudly. "Hey, buddy, come on! Where are you?! Don't play tricks on us!"  
  
Yugi glanced all about, his violet eyes wide and concerned. "Joey?! Are you okay?!" He shook his head in disbelief. "He couldn't have gone far!"  
  
"Yeah? Well, why did he go somewhere at all?!" Tristan retorted.  
  
"Someone must've carted him off," Yugi replied soberly.  
  
"Yes," Yami Yugi agreed, "but who? And why?" The Pharaoh narrowed his eyes in concern.  
  
"What's happening in here?!" Bakura gasped, running in with Mai, Ms. Myrvyn, and Yami Bakura in tow.  
  
"We heard you boys yelling all the way down the hall!" Ms. Myrvyn put in.  
  
Quickly Yugi and Tristan explained about Joey's sudden disappearance, causing gasps from Bakura and Mai.  
  
"Joey's missing?!" Bakura burst out. "Oh dear!"  
  
"Meow?" Oreo spoke up, emerging from Yami Bakura's shirt and looking about. Gracefully the cat leaped onto the thief's shoulders, blinking with her bright yellow eyes. Yami Bakura looked less than pleased with Oreo's antics and muttered something about foolish felines.  
  
Bakura had to chuckle at that sight but then looked worried again. "Poor Joey," he said quietly. "I do hope he's alright."  
  
"I'm sure we all do, Bakura," Yugi replied, walking ahead nervously. "Joey?!" He tapped on the wall, hoping that perhaps Joey had simply fallen through a secret entrance—but nothing happened.  
  
"He's nowhere around at all," Yami Yugi said grimly.  
  
****  
  
"A tornado?!" Tea shrieked, grabbing onto Mako tightly.  
  
"Yes," Mako nodded, "it's quite a strong possibility, especially since there was that unusual calm right before the wind picked up."  
  
Seto growled to himself. "We have to get to shelter," he directed. "We'll all be swept up by the tornado if we stay here." He gazed off into the distance and noticed a large funnel cloud almost touching the ground.  
  
Mokuba looked up at him worriedly, his blue-gray eyes wide. "Seto!" he cried. "I don't want anything to happen to you, big brother!!"  
  
"And nothing will, kid," Seto replied reassuringly. He glanced up at Tea and Mako. "Come on," he said, daring to let go of the tree trunk. "There's a cave over there. We'll hide out in it until the tornado's over."  
  
He received no arguments.  
  
****  
  
Ishizu also noticed the funnel cloud, far off in the distance, but at the moment she had more pressing matters to worry about. Hopefully, she thought, the tornado wouldn't come over where they were—and she prayed it wouldn't torment anyone else either.  
  
Carefully she and Marik managed to lift Rishid up, each one taking an arm and draping it over their shoulder. A strong wind whipped by, nearly knocking them all off-balance.  
  
Ishizu cried out and then narrowed her eyes worriedly. "This is very bad, brother," she declared. "I fear the storm may be coming our way."  
  
Marik looked back at her with wide lavender eyes. "We have to get back to the ranch with Rishid!" he exclaimed. "It cannot be that far away!"  
  
"I pray it is not," Ishizu said gently.  
  
Rishid groaned softly but didn't regain consciousness.  
  
Marik glanced at him, obviously concerned. "Please be alright, my brother," he whispered. "I cannot lose you. . . . I simply cannot!"  
  
****  
  
Linda and Joan were still holed up in the room they were sharing, glancing about worriedly.  
  
"You don't suppose," Joan said slowly, "that maybe that Rishid person really was being framed? I mean, I couldn't see the guy's face when he broke in and was going through the desk. Why couldn't someone have just gotten a cloak that looked like Rishid's and fooled us both?"  
  
Linda shook her head. "There's no one else on the ranch who has Rishid's build. It would've had to have been him!"  
  
"But everyone else said he was with them!" Joan protested. "Linda, face it—neither of us really knows for certain who it was. Maybe Rishid is innocent, just like they say."  
  
"That's crazy," Linda snorted. She was about to go on when the floor suddenly turned into a dark, swirling mass of colors. Frightened, Linda pulled her legs onto the bed, out of the way of this strange phenomenon. "What's happening?!" she yelped.  
  
To her utter horror and Joan's absolute shock, a man began rising out of his floor, his eyes closed as he concentrated on his spell.  
  
"What on earth?!" Linda screamed. "Who in the world are you?!"  
  
The man opened his eyes and looked first at her, then at Joan. "You do not need to know of my identity just yet," he replied, walking to the door.  
  
Linda stared after him, chalk-white.  
  
Joan was also gazing in disbelief. "Are you a spirit?!" she shrieked.  
  
"No," the man replied simply, going out into the hall.  
  
The two women exchanged disturbed looks.  
  
****  
  
The man walked down the hall purposefully, glancing in every room. After a moment, he paused and looked behind him. Much as he'd expected, he found a brown-haired, dark-eyed boy following him. "So," he spoke at last. "You decided to come along after all."  
  
"Well, yeah," the boy retorted. "So?"  
  
The mysterious stranger didn't answer him. Instead he walked on, opening the door to Tea's room and peering inside.  
  
"What're you lookin' for, anyway?" the boy demanded, trying to see what was so fascinating.  
  
The man walked over to the wall and began feeling it carefully, eventually finding the panel and sliding it open. "There was a grave crime here," he replied somberly, gazing down the stairs.  
  
"A crime?!" The teenager came over and stared into the darkness. "What's going on?! Where are we, anyway?"  
  
Slowly his simply-dressed companion pulled the panel shut again and turned to leave the room. "If we remain here for any length of time, you may find out about it," he said.  
  
The boy wasn't sure whether to consider that good news or not.  
  
****  
  
"Great Scott!" Bakura exclaimed suddenly while they were searching through the rooms.  
  
"Huh? What is it, Bakura?" Tristan asked, perking up.  
  
Bakura pointed out into the hall. "I . . . I could have sworn I saw Shadi," he replied.  
  
"Shadi?!" Yugi said in disbelief. "Why would he be here?!"  
  
"I can't imagine," Bakura said, shaking his head, "but I'm almost positive I saw him! There's no one else who looks quite like Shadi does!"  
  
Mai shrugged. "I'm sure you did see something, kiddo, but somehow I have a hard time believing Shadi would turn up here. Doesn't he only investigate . . ." She paused, searching for the right words, "more . . . supernatural stuff?" she finished at last.  
  
"Yes," Yami Yugi nodded, "he does."  
  
****  
  
Shadi clicked on the light to the basement and silently walked down the stone steps, his young shadow trailing after him in confusion.  
  
"What on earth would you want in a dump like this?!" he cried. "It's nothing but a storage room!"  
  
Still Shadi did not answer. Instead he pried the door open and looked inside. Finding nothing, he advanced further and pressed himself against a door on the far right. Carefully he then concentrated hard, opening a portal and stepping through it into the room.  
  
An elderly woman sitting in a wheelchair looked up as he approached, not seeming surprised at all to see him.  
  
"Oh, hello, young man," she smiled.  
  
Shadi nodded a wordless greeting and knelt down to be at her eye level. "Do you remember me?" he asked, suspicions forming in his mind.  
  
"Remember you?" The woman stared into space, as if attempting to call some long lost memory to mind. "No, I don't think I do," she said finally with a helpless shrug. "Should I?"  
  
Shadi gave her a thoughtful look. "Perhaps not at the moment," he replied. Straightening up, he half-turned and glanced at the wall while continuing to gaze at her as well. "How long have they kept you here this time?"  
  
"I lose track of time in here," the woman said sadly.  
  
Rex Raptor, the boy who had been following Shadi, now watched from the portal, his eyes wide. Someone was keeping this lady prisoner in the basement?! What sort of mess had he gotten himself into by coming along?!  
  
****  
  
"Stay close," Seto grumbled as he, Mokuba, Tea, and Mako all crowded into the small cave. The funnel cloud whipped past, tearing trees from their roots and sending them flying miles away.  
  
"Big brother!!" Mokuba wailed, clinging to Seto in a panic.  
  
Seto, who wasn't about to let the younger boy go for anything, held him as tightly as he possibly could, growling as the almost unearthly wind howled by the tiny opening of the cave.  
  
"I wish this thing was deeper!" Tea burst out in reference to the cave, her blue eyes wide. She, too, was afraid someone might be swept away.  
  
Almost as quickly as it had come, the tornado then lifted off the ground once more and was gone, leaving a horrid trail of debris in its wake.  
  
"Is everyone alright?" Mako asked worriedly.  
  
"We're all fine," Seto replied, narrowing his eyes.  
  
****  
  
"Ishizu," Marik spoke up in concern, "didn't you say someone was following us?!"  
  
"Yes," Ishizu replied quietly. "I sensed another presence . . . and I still do, as a matter of fact."  
  
A fierce wind screamed through, though not nearly as violent as the funnel cloud.  
  
"Someone is still pursuing us," Ishizu told her brother grimly.  
  
Rishid stirred then, opening his golden eyes halfway. "Master Marik?" he managed to say softly.  
  
"Rishid!" Marik exclaimed in relief. "Are you alright? Can you walk?"  
  
"Master . . . I am weak," Rishid replied, struggling to stand up straight.  
  
"Do not worry, my brother," Marik said gently. "We will help you."  
  
"Do you remember what happened to you?" Ishizu asked now.  
  
Rishid paused, looking confused. "I . . . I was thrown over the edge by . . . by a rider on a black horse," he said at last.  
  
"What?!" Marik cried, aghast.  
  
Before Rishid could respond, Ishizu gasped suddenly. "There is smoke over there!" she exclaimed. "The ranchhouse may be on fire!" 


	8. Lost and Found

All over the ranch the deadly red flames became visible as they leapt at the darkened sky.  
  
"Oh my!" Bakura burst out. "What's on fire? Is it the barn?!"  
  
Yugi rushed to look out as well. "I think so!" he gasped. "Come on, guys—we have to try to put it out!"  
  
Quickly the teens all ran outside and over to the barn, where Lorelei was already trying to extinguish the flames.  
  
"There's a well just over there," she announced when they ran up. "Someone get some more water from there while I get the horses out of the barn!"  
  
"I'll help you!" Yugi exclaimed without a second thought.  
  
"And I'll call the fire station!" Tristan put in, hurrying off without remembering that the phones were still out.  
  
Bakura was already dashing into the barn, heading for Firefly's stall. "Firefly!" he called worriedly. "Here girl! Come on!"  
  
Firefly whinnied and backed up, terrified of the flames.  
  
"Oh please come!" Bakura wailed, tugging on her reins.  
  
That was when a heavy beam fell from the ceiling and crashed down between them, striking Bakura hard on the forehead. With a cry of pain the boy fell back onto a sack of grain and lay still.  
  
Firefly looked at him curiously and then moved forward, nudging his arm. When Bakura didn't move, the horse bent down and tried to get him slung onto her back, without much luck.  
  
"Bakura!!"   
  
Yami Bakura's gruff, harsh voice came from the doorway and Firefly immediately trotted over to him, whinnying loudly.  
  
"What is it?" the thief demanded grouchily.  
  
Before Firefly could lead him over, a strong, young-faced man approached, holding Bakura's body in his arms. "I believe this boy is in your care," he said, very gently handing his cargo to Yami Bakura.  
  
Yami Bakura pulled Bakura close and glared daggers at the stranger. "What have you done to him?!" he snarled.  
  
"Me? I haven't done a thing," the stranger retorted. "I found him like this. Most likely he was hit by one of those falling beams." He smiled softly. "Look, I got him away from another one just over there, but now you should get him out of the barn before anything more happens . . . to either of you."  
  
Yami Bakura grunted but made no other reply. Instead he quickly got Bakura out the door and into the fresh air. Firefly, worried about the kind, innocent boy, followed in determination.  
  
"Bakura!" Yugi cried in disbelief when the tomb raider emerged with his young charge held close.  
  
Ignoring him and the others, Yami Bakura carried Bakura up to the ranch house and disappeared inside.  
  
Lorelei shook her head. "Poor thing," she muttered. "We'll have to be extra careful in there now." She glanced at the barn with narrowed eyes.  
  
Firefly twitched her ears and then stamped her foot hard, braying loudly and causing the other horses to suddenly run out of the burning building in panic.  
  
Yugi blinked in surprise. "Firefly must've signaled to the other horses where the door was and to come to it!" he exclaimed, hurrying to get another pail of water.  
  
That was when Ishizu and Marik stumbled up the path, both supporting a limping Rishid.  
  
"Oh!" Yugi exclaimed. "Rishid!! Are you okay?! Everyone's been looking everywhere for you!"  
  
Rishid smiled weakly. "I will live," he replied.  
  
"What has happened here?" Marik wanted to know, looking at the burning barn with narrowed eyes.  
  
"Don't know how it happened," Lorelei said shortly, desperately training a hose on the worse of the flames. "But at least the horses got out safely."  
  
****  
  
Seto's group was just making it down the pathway from the cave when a cold chill suddenly swept over them all.  
  
"Feel that?" Tea whispered, shivering slightly.  
  
"I did," Mako replied, narrowing his eyes. "It's as if a demon is lurking about."  
  
"Demon?!" Mokuba cried, his eyes wide.  
  
"That's nonsense," Seto muttered.  
  
A large horse slowly stepped into view, its rider adorned in a midnight black cloak that matched the color of the beast whose back the phantom was upon.  
  
"Hey!" Mokuba cried, trying to run forward. "What did you do to Rishid?!"  
  
Seto grabbed the younger boy before he could get up to the strange apparition. "Who are you?" he growled.  
  
The rider only hissed at him and snapped the reins. He and his horse then vanished into the oncoming fog.  
  
"What a creep!" Mokuba said indignantly.  
  
Seto started on ahead again. "Right now I think the best thing to do is to get back to the ranch before anything else happens. Maybe Rishid's been found."  
  
****  
  
Shadi, meanwhile, was still conversing with the old lady in the basement. He seemed quite aware of Rex's eavesdropping but made no move to send the boy away.  
  
"Shadi!! Shadi!!"  
  
Everyone turned at the sound of a little girl's voice. Without warning, she seemed to come from nowhere, leaping into Shadi's arms and beaming happily.  
  
"You haven't come for so long!" she said accusingly, grabbing onto a fistful of his hooded cape. "Where've you been?!"  
  
"There were some other things that needed to be tended to," Shadi replied, smiling at her.  
  
"What's going on here?!" Rex exclaimed, obviously baffled.  
  
The elderly woman only blinked. "So this is Shadi?" she said, seeming to recognize the name.  
  
"Yeah, Grandma, you remember!" the little girl chirped. "He used to come by sometimes! And this one time he rescued you from these bad men!"  
  
"He did?" The woman looked up at the man holding her granddaughter and still appeared puzzled. "Well, I'm certain it will come to me sooner or later."  
  
****  
  
Yami Bakura carefully laid Bakura down on the couch and lightly touched the red bump on the boy's forehead. "Fool," the tomb raider muttered.  
  
Bakura winced, as if feeling pain through the mists of unconsciousness.  
  
"Oh wake up," Yami Bakura growled, wanting to get away from the blasted ranch and feeling powerless to do anything.  
  
Abruptly the thief heard an odd noise and he straightened up, his eyes narrowed. "Who's here?" he demanded.  
  
Again the sound came—a dull banging on the wall from the opposite side of the room.  
  
"SHUT UP!" Yami Bakura yelled in irritation.  
  
"Yami?" Bakura opened his eyes slightly. "Maybe someone's hurt!"  
  
Yami Bakura grunted. "Of course someone's hurt, you moron—you! Stay resting." He pushed the boy into the soft couch.  
  
"Meow?" Oreo peeked up and then leaped on Bakura's chest gracefully. Purring, she rubbed her head against the boy's cheek and then licked it. Bakura had to chuckle.  
  
The pounding sound came once more, now frantic, and then the wall began to tear free.  
  
"What in the name of . . ." Yami Bakura stared, his eyes narrowed.  
  
The wall gave way, sending a coughing, sputtering Joey to the floor.  
  
"Joey!" Bakura burst out in shock.  
  
Joey sprawled on the floor amid the plaster, looking dazed. "Man, what goes on around here?!" he cried. "Some creep tried to suffocate me in the wall!"  
  
"What?!" Bakura said in horror.  
  
Yami Bakura grunted and looked angry, obviously concerned about Bakura's future safety with such nonsense going on.  
  
"Meow!" Oreo cried, curling up on Bakura's chest protectively.  
  
"Joey, that's terrible!" Bakura exclaimed.  
  
"Of course it's terrible!" Joey cried, sitting up and dusting himself off. He blinked, taking a good look at his friend. "What happened to you, Bakura?!" he demanded.  
  
Bakura just looked confused. "I'm not sure what you mean, Joey," he replied.  
  
"What do I mean?!" Joey shook his head in disbelief. "I'm talkin' about that nasty red mark on your forehead!"  
  
Turning a bit pink, Bakura quickly brushed his bangs down over it. "Oh, it's nothing," he said with a smile. "But Joey, we've been so worried! Who took you? And how on earth did they get you in the wall?!"  
  
"Don't ask me," Joey said in annoyance. "I couldn't see a thing! They just snuck up behind me, clunked me over the head, and I woke up in the wall, crammed tighter than sardines in a can!"  
  
"Oh my!" Bakura gasped.  
  
The door opened and an exhausted Lorelei came in, brushing her stringy hair away with the back of her hand. "Stupid fire," she muttered.  
  
"Weren't you able to put it out?" Bakura cried.  
  
"Oh yeah, it's out," Lorelei told him, "but we couldn't save the barn."  
  
Bakura's eyes widened. "Where will the animals go?" he wanted to know.  
  
"There's enough room in the other stable, I hope." The woman barely glanced at Joey as she walked out of the room and headed upstairs.  
  
Yugi and Tristan came in next, however, and they definitely did notice.  
  
"Joey!" Yugi burst out.  
  
"You're covered in plaster!" Tristan said in disbelief. "What've you been doing—breaking down walls?!"  
  
"Somethin' like that," Joey replied, slamming his fist into his palm and again relaying the tale of what had happened.  
  
"Oh!" Yugi cried.  
  
"Why would someone be trying to kill us?!" Tristan exclaimed. "We don't know anything!" He paused. "Or maybe that's why they want to kill us—so we won't find anything out!"  
  
"Find anything out about what?" Marik asked as he and Ishizu helped Rishid inside.  
  
"Rishid!" Joey exclaimed. "Oh man, we were lookin' everywhere for you! Where the heck were you?!"  
  
Rishid again explained all of what he remembered—being thrown over the cliff by the dark cloaked figure and his horse.  
  
"But why were you by the cliff in the first place?!" Joey said, scratching his head.  
  
"I do not remember," Rishid replied.  
  
Now that the two missing people had been found, Yugi's attention turned to figuring out where Seto's group had gotten themselves to.  
  
"It's pitch black out there!" the boy exclaimed. "I hope they're okay . . ."  
  
"They are," Seto grunted, pushing the door open.  
  
Yugi smiled in relief. "So everyone's here now?" he said hopefully.  
  
"There's still Mr. Dover and Marie," Tristan said thoughtfully.  
  
"And, oh my goodness!" Bakura sat straight up, startling Oreo. "Where's Mai?"  
  
"Mai?" Yugi repeated. "Why, she should've been with us!"  
  
"Oh great," Tea moaned. "Someone else is missing!"  
  
"Actually, boys and girls, I'm here too." Mai's voice wafted out to them and the blonde girl sashayed in the side door, followed by Marie and Mr. Dover. "So no one's missing at the moment."  
  
"What a relief," Tea smiled.  
  
"Now maybe we can concentrate on figuring out who's after us and why." Yugi grimly pulled out the article his Yami had been carrying earlier.  
  
"Yugi, what's that?" Tea asked, blinking.  
  
Yugi looked around. "I found it in my dresser," he said slowly, "but I don't know if it's safe to discuss it down here . . ."  
  
He trailed off then, staring ahead grimly.  
  
"Whaddya see, man?" Joey wanted to know.  
  
Yugi shook his head for silence and continued to gaze off into the distance. At last he looked back at the others with a grim expression. "I saw a lady in that mirror!" he declared.  
  
****  
  
Rex looked on as Shadi conversed with the little girl and tried to find answers to some of his questions.  
  
"Are you trapped down here as well?" the man asked now.  
  
"Uh huh," the girl said sadly. "Grandma started having those weird dreams again and so they locked us both in here a long time ago! I'm still trying to find a way out! There's gotta be one!!" She looked up at Shadi with her innocent maroon eyes. "But you're gonna get us out, aren't you?" she said hopefully.  
  
"Of course," Shadi assured her.  
  
The elderly woman suddenly let out a horrified gasp. "Oh!!!"  
  
Instantly everyone turned to look at her.  
  
"What is it?!" Rex cried. "What's going on?!"  
  
"I . . . I just had a vision," the woman quavered. "Someone else here will die!! They will die by the same evil, unknown hands that have plagued us here for the last thirty years!!" 


	9. Secrets

Shadi looked at her sternly. "Are you quite certain about this?" he asked.  
  
"Of course!" the elderly woman said emphatically. "You know my visions were always correct in the past. I have no reason to doubt this one!"  
  
"But . . . who's gonna die?!" Rex cried, unnerved.  
  
The little girl's eyes widened and she clutched at Shadi's cape even more frantically. "You won't die, will you, Shadi?" she wailed.  
  
Shadi looked at her for a long while. "Not unless it is my time," he said at last. "I do not die easily."  
  
The girl relaxed, seeming satisfied with that answer.  
  
"What's going on?!" Rex screamed for the millionth time.  
  
"I wish I knew, young man," the lady replied.  
  
****  
  
"You saw a lady in the mirror?" Mai repeated, looking at Yugi incredulously.  
  
Yugi nodded shakily. "I know I did!" He pointed. "She was just walking right through the room, behind the couch over there!"  
  
Everyone turned to look in that direction.  
  
"Well, no one's there now," Mai reported, crossing her arms.  
  
"It would seem," Lorelei remarked suddenly, coming down the stairs, "that you have just met Carol."  
  
"Huh?!" Yugi and all the others whirled to look at her. "Who's Carol?!" Yugi demanded.  
  
"Carol," Lorelei replied, drawing out her sentence, "was the older sister of someone who had been staying at our ranch indefinitely."  
  
All her listeners were intrigued.  
  
"Come on, let us in on the whole story here!" Joey exclaimed.  
  
Lorelei gave a sigh. "Alright," she said at last, motioning for everyone to sit down. "I guess you all have a right to know."  
  
Once they were all seated, Lorelei began.  
  
"This all began about thirty or so years ago," she said gravely. "I was only a little girl then, but I do remember what happened, very vaguely. It was all very strange about this family. It almost seemed as if disasters and tragedy followed them around everywhere.  
  
"My mother was caring for these three children who were all orphaned. They were all from somewhere out in the Pacific Islands . . . I think it may have been Hawaii, but I'm not sure."  
  
Seto perked up, looking intensely interested now.  
  
"Well, anyway," Lorelei continued, "so they were helping us here at the ranch while they stayed and tried to earn money to go to California. The youngest girl had a beautiful white pony that she rode every day. One day when she was out riding him, her older brother was tending to things in the barn and there was suddenly a terrible fire caused by a stray bolt of lightning during a storm." She shook her head. "He was caught in the fire when he tried to get the horses out."  
  
Bakura let out an audible gasp. "You mean he . . ."  
  
Lorelei nodded. "We couldn't get him out in time. He died."  
  
Yami Bakura's eyes narrowed and he muttered something under his breath that no one could catch.  
  
"That was devastating for the two sisters," Lorelei said softly. "The youngest girl took to riding her horse more and more until she was almost gone constantly. One time, months later, she was out during the wintertime and got very sick. She died as well, and then her horse ran away."  
  
Seto gave a startled cry. Even though he had been partially expecting Kasumi to have played some part in things at the ranch after finding Lonestar's nameplate, he had never expected that this was where she had . . . where she had . . .  
  
Mokuba looked up at him. "Seto?" he said uneasily. "Are you okay, big brother?"  
  
Seto grunted. "I'm fine, Mokuba."  
  
"I remember always wondering how Carol—the oldest of the three—managed to stay strong through all of this," Lorelei said quietly. "But . . . she did finally crack. Mama found her one morning laying dead in her room, a knife clutched in her hand."  
  
Yugi's eyes went wide. "She . . . she killed herself?!" he cried in horror.  
  
"Apparently so," Lorelei nodded.  
  
There was a respectful moment of silence.  
  
"After that," Lorelei went on at last, "people would start report seeing Carol's ghost wandering through the house, obviously restless. One time . . ." She paused, looking off into the distance. "I saw her as well."  
  
Marik suddenly looked startled, as if remembering something. "Last night I . . . I heard a girl's voice calling to me," he announced slowly.  
  
Lorelei didn't look surprised. "It was probably Carol," she said.  
  
Bakura blinked, recalling something as well. "Oh my!" he gasped. "I heard a voice talking to me earlier today! She . . . she whispered my name and said the word 'murder'!"  
  
"'Murder'?!" Lorelei repeated, narrowing her eyes.  
  
"Do you suppose it could have been Carol?" Bakura asked in a small voice, uncomfortable under the woman's gaze.  
  
"Possibly," Lorelei replied, "but she wasn't murdered." The woman shook her head slowly, looking confused.  
  
"Where is your mother now?" Ishizu asked softly.  
  
Lorelei's expression didn't change. "I don't know," she admitted. "Mama disappeared a while ago and I haven't seen her since. Sometimes she goes out taking walks around the ranch or driving into town."  
  
"Aren't you worried about where she might be?" Tea exclaimed.  
  
"Not really," Lorelei said with a shrug. "She disappears like this all the time. Once she was missing for months and then turned up just fine. She'd just been out adventuring."  
  
"Still," Bakura put in, "I would be extremely worried about her, no matter how often she disappeared."  
  
"Well, she's sent me letters sometimes," Lorelei admitted, "but they're always from different places. Portland, Seattle. . . . Sometimes she writes from towns here in Nebraska and the surrounding states. She says she's having fun. Sometimes she just likes to get away from country life." The red-haired woman stood up. "But I should go make sure Bart has all the horses safely in the other stable." Abruptly she walked out.  
  
"That was kinda . . . weird," Joey remarked.  
  
Bakura nodded shakily.  
  
"This fool nearly died today in a fire," Yami Bakura grunted.  
  
"Oh, Yami, I'm fine!" Bakura replied, turning a bit pink.  
  
"Meow," Oreo purred, rubbing up against them both.  
  
"Man, what's been goin' on around here?!" Joey burst out, throwing his hands in the air. "Bakura almost got creamed, Rishid got thrown off a cliff by some freaky guy and his horse, some girl's ghost is floatin' around 'cause she has no peace . . ."  
  
"Joey . . ." Bakura looked over at him, a strange look in his eyes.  
  
"Yeah?" Joey stared back, raising an eyebrow.  
  
"What if . . ." Bakura glanced around, his gaze falling on everyone in turn. "What if Carol really didn't commit suicide? What if . . . what if she was murdered?" he said in a hushed tone.  
  
"Murdered?!" Joey repeated. "But who the heck would murder her?!"  
  
"I don't know," Bakura said, shaking his head.  
  
Suddenly there was a creak on the stairs and Joan and Linda came down.  
  
"Have you seen that strange man?!" Joan burst out, her gaze falling on Yugi.  
  
"What strange man?" Yugi exclaimed.  
  
"The one who was in our room earlier!" Linda replied dramatically. "He came right up out of the floor!"  
  
Joey grunted. "Heck, maybe you girls deserved a good scare when you wouldn't even agree to help look for Rishid," he remarked.  
  
"Well, I never!" Linda snorted.  
  
"A guy came out of your floor?!" Yugi blinked, remembering how Bakura had said that he was certain he'd seen Shadi.  
  
"Yes!" Joan said emphatically. "Then some kid came out and followed after him, and then the floor just . . . was a floor again," she finished.  
  
The group all exchanged looks. What was going on here?  
  
"Well," Yugi said slowly, "if Shadi really is here, I wonder what he wants."  
  
"Maybe he'll help us get back to civilization," Mai said with a toss of her head.  
  
"I just want him to stay out of my room," Linda said, narrowing her eyes. "I'm tired of strange things going on here!" With that she turned and stormed back upstairs.  
  
Joan lingered behind for a moment, watching them all. "I'm glad you found Rishid," she said at last with a bit of a smile.  
  
Marik nodded curtly but didn't reply.  
  
****  
  
Shortly after Lorelei's tale, Marik and Ishizu helped Rishid upstairs and laid him on his bed in the room he was sharing with Marik.  
  
"Are you certain you are truly alright?" Marik asked his brother in concern.  
  
Rishid nodded slowly, leaning back into the soft pillows. "I am badly shaken but otherwise fine." He smiled at Marik and squeezed his hand. "Do not worry."  
  
Marik smiled as well but still looked worried. Sighing, he collapsed into the chair next to the bed and shook his head. "When I find out who threw you off the cliff and why, they will regret what they tried to do."  
  
"Do be careful, Marik," Ishizu said worriedly, laying a hand on his shoulder. "Do not do anything rash."  
  
"I won't," Marik retorted, sounding irritated. Almost immediately, however, he looked up at her with shamed eyes and grabbed her hand. "I'm sorry," he whispered.  
  
Ishizu smiled and rubbed his hand. "I know," she said. "You are upset because of what was done to Rishid, and I am upset as well. You have a right to be angry. What happened was atrocious."  
  
Rishid looked over at them but didn't join in the conversation. He was already feeling exhausted and before long he fell asleep.  
  
****  
  
Bakura looked over at his Yami, who was standing and staring out the window with a dark expression.  
  
"Yami?" he finally asked, feeling uncomfortable. "Yami, what's wrong?"  
  
The old thief grunted, continuing to look out across the ranch and clenching his fists. "You almost died today, you dolt," he growled. "I don't think you realize how close you came to it."  
  
Bakura blinked at him. "I'm alright, Yami," he assured him.  
  
"Yes . . . thanks to that dead boy," Yami Bakura shot back.  
  
"Yami, what are you talking about?!" Bakura's eyes were wide and showed his immense confusion.  
  
Slowly the tomb raider explained about the strange young man who claimed to have rescued Bakura from taking another blow from a beam—one which most likely would have been fatal. "It must have been the boy who died in that other fire," Yami Bakura remarked now.  
  
"What?" Bakura gasped, looking shocked and a bit sickened at the realization that he really might have died—and if not from the beams, from the flames.  
  
"You take too many chances," Yami Bakura snarled.  
  
"I couldn't just leave the horses in there," Bakura exclaimed. "Yami, you know you would never dream of leaving Oreo somewhere where she might get hurt!" Gently he picked up the purring cat and handed her to his Yami, who only grunted in reply. "She loves you so much, Yami," the boy smiled now.  
  
"Don't I know it," Yami Bakura muttered, looking irritated as Oreo snuggled close and licked his cheek. "Foolish feline." Bakura noticed, however, that the thief stroked the animal's fur several times and seemed to enjoy it.  
  
****  
  
It was much later that night when this time Ishizu awoke and couldn't sleep. Something was amiss somewhere.  
  
Slowly she climbed out of bed and walked out to Marik and Rishid's room. Finding them both peacefully sleeping, the Egyptian woman walked on down the hall, her senses sharply alert.  
  
She whirled abruptly when she heard a hissing sound to her right at the end of the corridor. "Who is here?" she asked low, her eyes narrowed. All she could see in the darkness was a tall, black-robed figure. "Are you the one who harmed Rishid?" she demanded.  
  
"He should be dead," an evil voice growled. "But now you definitely will be." Without warning he grabbed the woman and threw her down the staircase nearby.   
  
Ishizu let out a scream as she fell down the stairs and then hit her head at the bottom. "Marik," she whispered weakly, her eyes closing, "Rishid. . . . I love you, my brothers. . . ."  
  
"How touching," the man sneered, watching Ishizu go still. With another hiss, he vanished into the darkness around them. 


	10. Restless Spirits

When Ishizu screamed, both Marik and Rishid sprang awake, leaping out of their beds and running to the door.  
  
"Sister!" Marik cried, clutching at the doorframe. "Where are you?! What's wrong?!" Frantically he dashed into the hall, calling to her and rousing everyone else up. Rishid quickly followed after him, his golden eyes narrowed in worry.  
  
"Marik!!" Yugi emerged from his room, where he'd been awake and studying the newspaper article with his Yami. "What's going on? Why did Ishizu scream?!"  
  
Marik didn't answer, instead reaching the staircase and letting out a wail of anguish when he saw his sister laying at the bottom. Shadi was kneeling next to her, an immense look of concern on his face.  
  
"What happened?!" Marik screamed, flying down the stairs and taking his older sister into his arms.  
  
Shadi gave him a grave look. "Someone pushed her," he replied. "I know she is not careless enough to simply fall by accident."  
  
Marik's eyes filled with tears. "Sister?" he sobbed, pleading for a response. "Sister, wake up!"  
  
Before long, Rishid, Yugi, and the others had arrived upon the scene. Rishid knelt down in alarm, touching Marik's shoulder gently.  
  
"I can't wake her up!" Marik said shakily, looking stricken.  
  
Horrified, Rishid leaned down and listened for breath. "Lady Ishizu?" he whispered, praying desperately that she . . . that she wasn't . . .  
  
Marik's eyes were wide as he watched, terrified. Ishizu can't die! he cried in his mind. Please . . . she must live!  
  
At last Rishid looked up. "She is breathing very shallowly," he said haltingly, his golden eyes reflecting how grim he felt.  
  
"She may die," Shadi put in, saddened at the thought of losing his dear friend. "She took a serious blow to her head."  
  
"No!" Marik yelled, angry now. "She will not die! I won't let her!" Tears spilled over his cheeks as he fell across the woman protectively.  
  
"Marik?"  
  
The Egyptian boy looked up to see Mokuba standing next to him.  
  
"Ishizu's gonna be okay, Marik," Mokuba tried to assure his friend, smiling shakily.  
  
Marik smiled back. "Thank you, my friend," he said softly.  
  
Rishid slowly stood up, holding his adopted sister close. "We must call a doctor!" he cried.  
  
Lorelei shook her head. "There aren't any in these parts," she told them quietly.  
  
"What?! This is outrageous!" Marik screamed. "I will not stand here and let my sister die!"  
  
Shadi straightened up and walked over, touching Ishizu's forehead gently. "I will help her all I can, but we must hasten." He paused. "She does not have much time left."  
  
Marik sobbed as Rishid carried their sister upstairs. The boy quickly followed alongside, holding Ishizu's limp hand frantically. Several hours ago he had nearly lost Rishid, and now he might lose Ishizu. "Why is this happening?" he wailed. "We have done nothing and yet we are being tormented!"  
  
A long silence followed. At last Yugi turned to Shadi in confusion, hoping for answers. "Why are you here, Shadi?" the boy asked.  
  
"Yeah," Joey put in, "can't you just zap us all back to Boston or home to Oregon or somethin'?!"  
  
"I could," Shadi admitted, "but do you truly want to leave Lorelei to deal with the evil infesting this ranch?"  
  
"Of course not, but . . ." Joey trailed off, shaking his head.  
  
Lorelei looked at them sternly. "You should all leave while you're still alive," she told them.  
  
"We won't go until this problem is solved!" Yugi replied firmly.  
  
Marik nodded solemnly, tears glistening in his eyes. "Ishizu would want it that way," he said, stroking his sister's hand.  
  
****  
  
After the Egyptians disappeared into Ishizu's room, Yugi and the others waited outside, trying to decide what to do.  
  
"Yami and I were going over this article," Yugi said slowly, "and it's not about Carol at all!"  
  
"Oh no!" Tea moaned. "Someone else died here too?!"  
  
"Apparently," Mai said grimly.  
  
Yami Yugi took the article and held it up. "According to this, Lorelei had a twin sister who died here ten years ago."  
  
"Oh!" Bakura cried, no stranger to the pain of losing a sibling. "How horrible!"  
  
"How did she die?" Seto asked coldly.  
  
Yami Yugi consulted the article. "She fell off the roof while mending it," he reported. "It was considered an accident."  
  
"I betcha it wasn't," Tristan said with narrowed eyes.  
  
****  
  
Shadi bent over Ishizu, speaking softly in Egyptian and brushing the stray strands of hair away from her face. Marik and Rishid watched tensely, not certain of what he was doing but just praying it would work.  
  
At last the mysterious man straightened up and looked at them. "Speak to her," he directed quietly. "Her body may be unconscious, but her spirit is aware of you."  
  
Tearfully Marik stepped forward and took Ishizu's hand. "Dear sister," he whispered. "Please . . . you must not allow these cowards to win! You must pull through!" He held the woman's hand up to his cheek. "Sister, you have always been there for me! You cannot leave me now!"  
  
"Your sister is dead."  
  
Marik looked up in disbelief at the quiet voice's words, which pierced him through to his very heart. "Who are you?" he demanded furiously. "My sister is not dead! She will not die!!"  
  
Slowly a young woman's sad form began to materialize until she stood in front of him. "This ranch is cursed," she said softly, "and those who die here of unnatural causes are forced to wander the lonely halls until the murderer is found and convicted."  
  
"What?!" Marik threw himself across Ishizu's body, glaring at the apparition. "Ishizu will not be joining you in your hauntings!!"  
  
"Brother . . ."  
  
Rishid stared speechlessly at something just behind Marik. "Master," he managed to say at last, continuing to gaze in disbelief.  
  
"Rishid?! What on earth is . . ." Marik whirled around to look . . . and immediately went pale. Ishizu's spirit was standing beside him, shimmering slightly.  
  
Shadi, who had been mostly silent but was taking in everything very closely, looked at his friend's ghost with narrowed eyes. "Ishizu," he uttered low.  
  
Ishizu smiled softly at him and then gently ran a translucent hand through Marik's hair.  
  
Marik's eyes flooded with tears as he looked first at Ishizu's body and then up at her spirit. "Sister, no!!!" he screamed.  
  
"She is another victim of this madness," the first spirit said solemnly.  
  
"No!!" Marik leaped up, his eyes flashing. "This is an illusion! It is not real!"  
  
"It is not an illusion, Marik," Ishizu's spirit said quietly. "But this woman here is only partially correct in what she says." She straightened up, looking at the other apparition with a steely gaze. "I will not allow myself to die."  
  
"You can't prevent it," the first ghost said pessimistically, looking down. Her bright pink hair glistened in the soft light.  
  
"I can and I will," Ishizu told her. She leaned down and kissed Marik's cheek. "Do not give up hope, dear brother," she said softly.   
  
Slowly she crossed the room and held up her hand next to Shadi's, gently entwining her fingers with his. "You will solve the mystery and break the curse," she told him firmly. "I know that you will."  
  
Shadi gazed at her, his blue eyes soft and shining. Quietly he spoke to her in Egyptian and Ishizu replied in the same language before moving on to Rishid.  
  
"Lady Ishizu," he said softly.  
  
Ishizu smiled and touched his shoulder. "Do not worry about me, Rishid. I will return, my brother." With a flash of light her spectral form vanished.  
  
All three stared at the spot where she had been standing and then Marik bent over her still body once more. "She is alive!" the boy said in relief. "She kept her promise! She is alive!" He embraced his sister's form joyously.  
  
"It's not over yet," the ghost whispered softly, starting to vanish. "Things have only just begun."  
  
Shadi watched her disappear and then smiled slightly. "Ishizu will be alright," he assured Marik and Rishid now. "And now I must go. There are other matters I must attend to."  
  
Before either Marik or Rishid could respond, Shadi had vanished as well.  
  
"Dear Lady Ishizu," Rishid whispered softly.  
  
****  
  
In the meantime, the rest of the gang had split up to look for the guilty party who had thrown Ishizu down the stairs.  
  
"They couldn't have gotten far," Yami Yugi remarked as he, Yugi, and Tea wandered down a seemingly endless corridor.  
  
"Did you just hear something?!" Tea exclaimed, stopping short and staring ahead, her eyes wide.  
  
"Hear what, Tea?" Yugi asked in concern.  
  
Tea shook her head. "I . . . I don't know. . . . It . . . it almost sounded like someone calling for help!" she admitted.  
  
"Oh!" Yugi cried, his eyes widening. "Did you hear it, Yami?" he asked.  
  
The ancient Pharaoh shook his head. "I heard nothing," he responded.  
  
"Oh great," Tea sighed. "Am I going crazy then?!"  
  
No one knew what to say to that, but Yugi had the feeling that perhaps Tea truly had heard something.  
  
****  
  
"Yami?"  
  
Yami Bakura turned to look at Bakura, who had spoken quaveringly and looked quite terrified.  
  
"What is it, you dolt?" the thief growled.  
  
"Yami, the eyes on that portrait are watching us!" Bakura whispered frantically.  
  
Yami Bakura whirled around to stare at the painting on the wall. "That's nonsense!" he scolded. "It's a perfectly normal picture."  
  
Oreo flattened her ears against her head and hissed at the portrait.  
  
"She knows something's wrong!" Bakura declared, his eyes wide.  
  
Yami Bakura shook his head and threw his hands up in disbelief.  
  
Maybe you should listen to the boy, Bakare.  
  
The tomb raider froze.  
  
"Yami?" Bakura blinked, obviously unaware of the voice.  
  
After all, the voice continued, in the past when he's thought something was amiss, it truly was.  
  
"Shut up!!" Yami Bakura screamed.  
  
"Yami, what is it?!" Bakura cried. "Was it something I said?!"  
  
"It's not you, moron!" Yami Bakura retorted irritably, wondering how on earth the voice had known to call him "Bakare."  
  
****  
  
Seto and Mokuba were still in the upstairs hall, checking in each room for signs of ill activity.  
  
"This is awful!" Mokuba burst out. "I can't believe someone would do that to Ishizu! Marik must feel just terrible!" He clenched his fists. "I wish I could go see how he's doing."  
  
Seto was about to reply that Mokuba would probably be safer with Marik and Rishid rather than wandering down the halls when a strange hand broke through the window they were standing by and grabbed for the younger boy viciously.  
  
"Seto!!!" Mokuba screamed as he was pulled out through the opening in the glass.  
  
"Mokuba!!!!" Seto grabbed for the boy and managed to catch hold of his ankle. Before he knew what was happening, he was being yanked out as well. 


	11. Enter Lou

Falling . . . falling . . . it seemed as if they would never reach the bottom, and that if they did, they'd both be killed instantly.  
  
Frantically Seto grabbed the edge of the windowsill with one hand while struggling to hold onto Mokuba with the other.  
  
"Big brother!" Mokuba screamed, swaying upsidedown dizzily.  
  
"Mokuba, grab onto the window ledge right by you!" Seto directed, knowing that they needed to steady themselves before anything else could go wrong.  
  
Mokuba swayed again, groping for the window ledge. "Seto! Whatever's trying to get us is still here!" he cried, feeling a cold, clammy hand grab for him.  
  
Seto growled angrily and tried unsuccessfully to pull them both up into the window.  
  
"Oh my!" Bakura's familiar soft voice exclaimed. "Mokuba!"  
  
Seto could hear him open the window just below them.  
  
"Bakura!" Mokuba cried in relief, grabbing for the British boy frantically. "Seto's out here too!"  
  
"What?!" Bakura took Mokuba's wrists and then glanced up at Seto above them. "Oh dear."  
  
"Take Mokuba," Seto ordered. "I'll climb back in through the window up here."  
  
"But Seto . . .!" Mokuba protested.  
  
"Do it, Bakura," Seto growled.  
  
Bakura blinked. "Well, alright," he said slowly, pulling Mokuba inside. "What on earth happened to you two?!"  
  
Mokuba quickly explained about the thing that had grabbed for him. "I don't know what it was," he said with a shudder, "but it was weird!"  
  
"I can imagine," Bakura exclaimed, hurrying to close the window.  
  
"Hey! What's going on?!"  
  
Both boys jumped.  
  
"Rex Raptor?!" Bakura burst out. "What on earth?!"  
  
Rex shrugged. "Hey, I followed that weird guy here from San Francisco," he told them. "He got that talisman back from that spirit and then decided to come out here!"  
  
"He got the Horse Talisman back?!" Bakura blinked.  
  
"Yeah," Rex said, "but I don't know how. You'll havta ask him yourself."  
  
"Why did Shadi want to come here?!" Mokuba asked, remembering how, during a time when the Egyptian man had been considered dead, he had rescued Mokuba and Ishizu from an evil wizard back in Frisco.  
  
"Search me," Rex grunted. "But there's a couple of people locked in . . ."  
  
Before he could continue, Seto appeared, looking extremely ruffled.  
  
"Seto!" Mokuba grinned, running to him.  
  
Seto smiled and hugged him. "Whatever it was out there got away," he said in irritation.  
  
"Oh dear," Bakura burst out.  
  
"What thing are we talkin' about?!" Rex demanded.  
  
Hurriedly Bakura explained, ending with, "What were you starting to say, Rex?"  
  
Rex narrowed his eyes. "There's an old lady and her granddaughter locked in the basement!" he cried. "That guy went down there to see them and went right through the wall!"  
  
"Well, that's Shadi for you," Mokuba grinned.  
  
"Why were they locked in the basement?" Seto asked with narrowed eyes.  
  
"I don't know!" Rex said in frustration. "No one would tell me anything!" He looked around, appearing disturbed and annoyed.  
  
****  
  
Marik was still sitting by Ishizu's side, holding her hand and stroking it gently.  
  
"Why would anyone do this?" the boy sobbed again. "Ishizu would never hurt anyone!"  
  
Rishid looked down sadly, wishing that they never would have landed at this ranch. "If only I could have stopped this," he said softly.  
  
Marik looked shocked. "Rishid, there is nothing you could have done!"  
  
"If I had been able to capture that person who threw me off the cliff, perhaps Lady Ishizu wouldn't have gotten injured!" Rishid berated.  
  
Marik shook his head. "I believe more than one person is at work here. Ishizu most likely would have still been harmed."  
  
Ishizu stirred slightly, squeezing Marik's hand.  
  
"Dear sister," Marik whispered.  
  
****  
  
Shadi was back in the basement, holding the sleepy little girl on his lap and trying to converse with the elderly woman.  
  
"Oh, I don't know why these things happen," she sighed. "Lou just told me that I'd be safer down here because I kept saying crazy things."  
  
"What about Alyson?" Shadi asked, indicating the child sleeping on his chest.  
  
"Lou said she talked too much," the woman replied.  
  
"And what was she talking too much about?" Shadi wanted to know.  
  
"About what I was seeing," she told him. "I have these visions quite frequently. I see the past, present, and the future. Lou thinks I'm just a senile old woman."  
  
"You did not always have such visions," Shadi recalled.  
  
Now the woman looked sad. "I know," she said softly.  
  
****  
  
Bakura looked around nervously, having become separated from Rex and the Kaiba brothers. He felt as if every picture, every statue, and even the walls, floor, and ceiling, were watching his every move. The boy shuddered, longing for one of his friends; even having Oreo would be better than being all alone.  
  
"Yami?" he called shakily. "Oreo? Yugi?!" His voice echoed off the walls as he turned the corner. "Is anyone here?"  
  
In answer to his pleas, a mournful wailing began and a cold chill started to envelope Bakura in it.  
  
"What's happening?!" the boy screamed, clutching the wall as a feeling of despair began to overwhelm him. "I say, help!!"  
  
"Bakura," a voice whispered, and slowly the feeling dispersed.  
  
Bakura relaxed somewhat and looked around for the source of the voice. "Who are you?" he called.  
  
"We are prisoners here," a second one told him.  
  
"Prisoners?!" Bakura repeated. "But why?! How?!"  
  
"You must free us," a third voice chimed in.  
  
"Free you?!" Bakura was more confused than ever. Suddenly a new thought occurred to him. "Were . . . were you all . . . killed here?" he asked quaveringly.  
  
"Yes," the first voice told him. "A great evil permeates throughout the ranch, and you and your friends are the only ones who can stop it."  
  
"What?!" Bakura gasped, bowled over. "But . . . why us?!"  
  
The voices didn't answer and then Bakura felt the spirits they belonged to vanish. He was alone again, but certainly not any less nervous. If anything, he was more nervous than ever.  
  
****  
  
Shadi held Alyson thoughtfully, his eyes narrowing as he began to reflect on the past. It was true—there had been a great evil infesting the ranch—but he had gotten rid of it the last time he had been there. Unfortunately, he knew that evil could not stay defeated for long. Somehow, it had returned now to torment the innocent further.  
  
He looked down at the little girl as she snuggled close to him. No one knew his deepest feelings. To all those he met, he was the guardian of the Millennium Items—an emotionless soul who enforced justice. But there was more to him than that. Much more.  
  
He was very fond of children, for one thing—especially sweet, pure ones such as the one sleeping in his arms. He never had been certain why she was so drawn to him, but ever since he had first met her, the girl had sensed something special about him and now she never left his side when he was around.  
  
Shadi smiled faintly. It was comforting to know that someone truly cared whether he lived or died.  
  
Alyson stirred vaguely, grabbing for the Ankh in her sleep.  
  
Shadi chuckled. "No, no, little one," he said quietly, prying it gently out of her grasp. Sighing to himself, the Egyptian man leaned back and started to doze.  
  
Abruptly the wall creaked behind him and he started awake again.  
  
"Who is here?" he demanded, receiving no answer. He narrowed his eyes. "Be warned—I will let no harm come to the people staying here."  
  
Soft breathing echoed in the small room and suddenly a tall, strong man stepped out of the shadows. "You again!" he snarled.  
  
Shadi looked at him stonily. "Have you no shame, Lou? Imprisoning your own mother and your niece in the basement?"  
  
Lou growled. "I should've known you'd come back," he muttered. "Just when I think my plans are going along smoothly, you show up and get in the way." He moved forward and tried to grab for Alyson, but Shadi stood up and held the sleeping girl out of his reach.  
  
"You will never touch this girl again as long as I am here," Shadi said in a dangerous, low tone.  
  
Lou snatched Shadi's arm and tried to wrench it around. "She's my niece, Egyptian," he said in an equally dangerous tone.  
  
"You never treated her as one," Shadi replied, taking hold of Lou's arm and forcing the other man away from him.  
  
"Maybe I've changed since I was released from prison," Lou said with an evil grin.  
  
"You haven't changed at all," Shadi said stonily.  
  
Alyson stirred slightly again, opening her eyes and looking around. "Shadi?" she asked quaveringly, wrapping her arms around his neck in fright. "Please don't let Uncle Lou hurt me!!"  
  
"Do not fear," Shadi told her. He held the girl tightly and glared at Lou, who only growled back.  
  
****  
  
As Bakura continued to wander down the hall, a black-robed form darted past his line of vision and turned the corner.  
  
"Wait!" the boy cried, running forward. "Stop!!"  
  
Of course the figure didn't, and Bakura found himself running down a long hallway that seemed to never end. "Why on earth is this ranchhouse so big?" he wondered to himself. "It reminds me of the ski lodge back in Utah!"  
  
Abruptly all the lights went out, plunging Bakura into complete darkness.  
  
"Oh my!" he gasped, feeling around for the wall. "What's happening?!"  
  
A maniacal laugh echoed throughout the corridors and then a bony hand dug into Bakura's back and shoved him roughly out through the double doors onto the balcony.  
  
With a soft moan, the British boy pulled himself into a sitting position and looked about. He soon found that he was three floors above the ground, much to his displeasure. Quickly he turned to go back inside when he was suddenly accosted by the robed creature.  
  
"Why are you pursuing me?" it asked in a raspy voice.  
  
"Pursuing you?!" Bakura cried in amazement. "You're the one attacking everyone!!"  
  
The creature hissed and grabbed at Bakura fiercely, trying to throw him over the balcony railing. The boy gave a cry of alarm and struggled with it, eventually collapsing to the floor of the terrace and wrestling about.  
  
It wasn't long before the thing got its hand wrapped around Bakura's throat and lifted him into the air. The boy gasped as his air supply was squeezed off and he clawed at the arm frantically, trying to get it to let him go.  
  
"Help!" he choked out, his eyes wild with fright. "Someone, please . . ."  
  
"No one can hear you," the creature sneered, holding him aloft over the edge of the railing. "Tis a pity, isn't it?"  
  
Just before Bakura was certain his neck would have broken, his assailant abruptly let go, throwing him out into the darkness. 


	12. Night of Surprises

Yami Bakura was wandering down an endless hallway when he heard Bakura scream in his mind.  
  
"You dolt!" the thief yelled, looking around for the nearest exit. He had also mentally seen what was happening to the boy and knew there was no time to waste.  
  
Finding the balcony doors, Yami Bakura burst through them and peered over the edge. "Bakura?" he growled.  
  
"Yami?"  
  
The tomb robber looked up at the weak voice and saw the boy's bloodied body hanging from a tree several feet away. He was clutching to a branch frantically, feeling his grip slipping. "Yami, help!!!"  
  
"You foolish idiot!" Yami Bakura cried out, somersaulting down and running over. "Let go, Bakura. I'll catch you."  
  
Bakura looked at him with glazed eyes. "Yami," he moaned again, slipping free and collapsing into the ancient thief's arms, shuddering.  
  
Yami Bakura held him at arm's length, staring at him. "What happened to you?!" he demanded.  
  
"The robed creature," Bakura rasped. "It . . . it threw me. . . ."  
  
Yami Bakura narrowed his eyes. "You could have broken your neck!"  
  
Bakura managed a weak smile. "Actually, Yami, they tried to make that happen," he replied, indicating the red marks on his throat.  
  
Yami Bakura cursed and grabbed for the boy as he lost his balance and crashed against him. "Dolt," he muttered.  
  
****  
  
Shadi continued to wrestle with Lou while holding Alyson firmly against his chest.  
  
"Lou!"  
  
Everyone looked up at the sound of the woman's angry voice.  
  
"Stop tormenting your niece!"  
  
Lou growled and shoved Shadi backwards before going up and harshly slapping his mother. "Be silent, woman! Don't you know I hold both your lives in my hands?!"  
  
Immediately Shadi got in the way, threateningly holding his Ankh out. "Leave them be, Lou," he said quietly. "Or you will have me to deal with."  
  
Lou growled and tried to grab for it. "Your pathetic magic doesn't scare me, Egyptian."  
  
Shadi poked the Ankh in the wicked man's chest. "Unless you are even more foolish than you appear, you will not trifle with me further. You know of the ancient powers I hold, and I will not hesitate to use them."  
  
Lou snarled, but turned away slowly and apparently was going to leave. In the next instant, however, he turned back—but Shadi was ready for him. Using a burst of energy from the Ankh, he sent a heavy statue crashing to the floor from across the room. It smashed down right next to Lou, who jumped and then narrowed his eyes.  
  
"Do you wish to be like that statue?" Shadi looked at him stonily.  
  
Lou clenched his fists. "Watch your step, guardian." He spit the word out as if it tasted bad. "This won't be like the last time you were here. I swear, you will never leave this ranch alive!" With that he stormed back out through the panel in the wall, locking it from the other side once he had gone through.  
  
Alyson clung to Shadi in horror, sobbing into his shoulder. Shadi stroked her hair gently, trying to comfort her and finding himself infuriated at Lou.  
  
And the elderly lady was angry as well.  
  
"Honestly, I can't believe what Lou has become," she said, shaking her head. "He always was rebellious and a troublemaker, but now he's . . ." She trailed off, looking up at her granddaughter in concern.  
  
"He . . . he comes in every night and . . . and . . ." Alyson looked up at Shadi sadly before rolling up her sleeve and showing him the angry bruises on her arm. "He . . . he was here earlier, when you had to go see about that lady who fell down the stairs." She spoke ashamedly and then looked away.  
  
"This is not your fault, young one. You have nothing to be ashamed of." Shadi's eyes narrowed as the rage boiled within his heart. "I promise you, Alyson, that as long as I live, Lou will never again harm you," he vowed quietly.  
  
Alyson smiled shakily and gave Shadi a tight hug.  
  
****  
  
Ishizu found herself floating in a strange, dark, seemingly endless space. At first she was alone, but then the pink-haired woman joined her.  
  
"Hello," she said forlornly.  
  
Ishizu nodded a greeting. "What is happening here?" she asked. "Do you not have any idea of who is causing these abominations?"  
  
The other woman sighed and looked away. "It could be anyone, really," she replied. "I never saw my killer, and neither did the others who died here of unnatural causes. We are bound here by something intangible, unable to break free and go on to our afterlives."  
  
Ishizu looked at her firmly. "What reason would someone have for wanting you dead?" she wanted to know. "I will do everything I can to ensure that the murderer is brought to justice, but first I must know any and all possible clues."  
  
Carol crossed her arms. "The only thing I can think of is an odd incident that happened a couple of days before I . . ." She shook her head as a faraway look came into her eyes. "I had been out by the creek when I saw a dark-robed figure kneeling down looking into the water. He seemed to be searching for something, but I couldn't imagine what. I called out to him and asked if I could help, and immediately he turned and ran away."  
  
Ishizu turned slightly. "I see," she said in her soft, musical voice.  
  
****  
  
Yugi, his Yami, and Téa were still wandering through the ranchhouse when the door was kicked open and Yami Bakura stormed in, supporting a limping Bakura.  
  
"Bakura!" Yugi cried. "What happened?!"  
  
Haltingly the brown-eyed boy explained about his experiences, struggling to hold himself upright. "Those good spirits I talked to said that we're the only ones who can get things back the way they should be!" Bakura declared.  
  
"Nonsense," Yami Bakura grumbled, helping Bakura over to the couch and laying him on it.  
  
"But what if it's true, Yami?" Bakura protested. "It could be!"  
  
"I sense that it is, indeed, true," Yami Yugi said quietly, watching as Yami Bakura got the first aid kit and began treating Bakura's wounds.  
  
****  
  
Mokuba, meanwhile, walked down the long hall until he came to Ishizu's room and stood at the door. Slowly he reached up and knocked, calling for his friend.  
  
In a moment the door was opened by an exhausted and depressed Rishid. "Come in, young Mokuba," he said, holding the door open wider. "Master Marik will be glad to see you."  
  
Nodding his thanks, Mokuba scrambled inside and looked around for Marik.  
  
The teenage boy was leaning over Ishizu's bed, worn-out himself. In hopefulness he had laid his head on Ishizu's shoulder gently and then had put his arm around her in a partial embrace, looking across the room with bleary eyes. When he spotted Mokuba, he raised himself up again and smiled.  
  
"Hello, my friend," he said, gesturing for Mokuba to come closer.  
  
The younger boy did, glancing over at Ishizu in concern. "Are you okay?" he asked, knowing how much stress Marik must be under.  
  
Marik hesitated a bit in replying but then at last said that he would be okay when Ishizu woke up. "I know she will," he said softly.  
  
Mokuba smiled and hugged his friend, looking up at him with wide blue-gray eyes. "We're gonna find out why all this stuff is happening and then fix it!" he promised, just as a bolt of lightning streaked across the sky outside.  
  
"I am certain we will," Marik agreed. "I only pray we can do it before . . . before . . ." He trailed off, but Mokuba knew that the rest of his sentence was, "before someone is harmed permanently."  
  
Rishid turned to look out the window, his senses sharply alert. When another flash of lightning lit up the night sky, he turned away again, not especially wanting to recall the memories he associated with the natural phenomenon. And by the look on Marik's face, he didn't want to either.  
  
The boy shuddered, grabbing Ishizu's hand for comfort.  
  
"Are you thinking about Battle Ship?" Mokuba asked softly.  
  
Marik nodded solemnly and sighed.  
  
"It's okay, Marik. That's all over with now," Mokuba said with a quiet smile.  
  
Marik ruffled the boy's hair. "And I'm glad of it," he declared.  
  
****  
  
Joey, Tristan, and Mako were exploring downstairs when Linda came up to them.  
  
"Isn't it simply preposterous?!" the news anchor blurted.  
  
"Which?" Joey asked, stifling a yawn. It had been such a long day and now that it was night he still wasn't able to go to sleep.  
  
"Everything!" Linda screamed. "Why, now I'm living in constant fear of being murdered in my sleep!"  
  
"I dunno," Tristan mused. "That doesn't seem like this criminal's style. This one seems to like his victims being wide awake when he attacks."  
  
"This isn't funny!" Linda fumed.  
  
"I never said it was," Tristan retorted. "I'm reporting the facts."  
  
"That's true, Tristan, you are," Joey remarked. "Dang, you'd think that when everyone was awake, they'd be able to remember something more concrete than just some badly-dressed dude's robe!"  
  
"Hey!" Tristan exclaimed. "Maybe what we should do is get a rundown on all the employees here at the ranch and then go investigating their rooms. One of them might own a dark cloak!"  
  
"Now why would someone working here be behind this?" Mako wondered.  
  
"Hey, why would anyone be?" Joey shrugged. "We've gotta start somewhere."  
  
****  
  
As a matter of fact, Rex was encountering someone who worked there that very moment.  
  
"Hey! Watch where you're goin'!" the boy cried out indignantly as someone banged into him and sent them both to the floor.  
  
"Me? What about you?" The man got up and glared daggers at Rex.  
  
"Who are you anyway?" Rex wanted to know. "Do you work here?"  
  
"Of course I do," came the grunted reply. "You'll know me as Mr. Ivy. And now if you'll kindly get out of my way . . ." Without waiting for an answer, Mr. Ivy shoved Rex to the side and stormed off.  
  
Rex stared after him, looking highly miffed. "Man, he's sure got a burr in his saddle!" Thoughtfully the boy paused. "I wonder what he's up to. Maybe I'll just casually follow along and find out." Smirking to himself, he quietly trailed after Mr. Ivy.  
  
****  
  
By now it was far into the early morning hours and everyone was utterly exhausted. There was no sign of the cloaked figures or of anyone unusual at all.  
  
"Perhaps we should go down in the basement and see if we can help those people locked up in there," Bakura said worriedly.  
  
"There's people locked in the basement?!" Yugi cried in astonishment.  
  
Bakura nodded, repeating what Rex had told him earlier.  
  
"Heck, I'm sure Shadi is takin' care of them just fine," Joey said. He and his group had met up with Yugi and the others a few minutes ago.  
  
The lights flickered dangerously as the thunder boomed outside.  
  
"That's some storm out there," Tristan said, glancing at the window.  
  
"I hope nothing else bad is going to happen tonight," Téa moaned.  
  
****  
  
Ishizu stirred, feeling Marik tiredly lay his head on her shoulder again. The Egyptian woman smiled, reaching up to pull her younger brother into an embrace.  
  
Immediately Marik returned to complete awareness once more. "Sister?" he exclaimed joyously, his lavender eyes brightly shining.  
  
"Yes," Ishizu said softly, holding him close and stroking his hair.  
  
"Lady Ishizu!" Rishid perked up as well, hastening over.  
  
Mokuba grinned, watching the happy reunion. "I'm glad you're okay," he said to Ishizu, who smiled at him in reply.  
  
The lights flickered again, threatening to plunge everyone into darkness.  
  
Marik barely noticed, so relieved was he to have his sister back.  
  
****  
  
Seto was somewhere by himself when the lights actually did go off. Muttering to himself, the young businessman clicked on the flashlight he was carrying around and prepared to continue down the hall.  
  
Abruptly Rex crashed into him, knocking them both off-balance.  
  
"Where are you going in such a hurry?" Seto asked with a raised eyebrow.  
  
"I havta tell someone!" Rex replied. "Heck, I guess you'll do. But there's a weird ranchhand here named Mr. Ivy and he's up to no good!"  
  
"What makes you say that?" Seto wanted to know.  
  
"I saw it!" Rex said in irritation. "I saw him! He was talking to those cloaked weirdos! They're plotting something!!"  
  
Before Rex could say more, a shriek rent through the air. 


	13. Lightning Striking

Instantly both boys perked up.  
  
"What's that?!" Seto growled, tired of all the catastrophes.  
  
"Someone's in trouble again!" Rex burst out.  
  
In the next moment Mai came running up, panic-stricken. "It grabbed me!" she exclaimed in utter horror. "This bony hand just reached out and grabbed me!"  
  
Rex stared at her, wide-eyed. "How'd you get away?!" he wanted to know.  
  
Mai held up a can of hair spray.  
  
Seto looked at it. "If what grabbed you was a mortal man instead of a spectre, he's probably still trying to recover from the shock of having hair spray shot at him. Take us to where you were grappling with him," he requested.  
  
Mai nodded firmly and led them down the hall to where a cloaked figure was sprawled on the floor, looking stunned.  
  
Mai narrowed his eyes and stood over him, arms akimbo. "Alright. We've had enough of your antics!" Quickly she leaned down and yanked the hood back, revealing an angry-looking man.  
  
"Hey!" Rex cried. "This is the guy I saw just a few minutes ago!"  
  
Immediately Seto reached over and pulled the phony spectre to his feet. "I suggest you tell us what you've been up to," he growled. "You could've killed Ishizu tonight." He spoke in the dangerous, low tone that let anyone he was angry with know not to mess with him.  
  
Mr. Ivy glared. "I didn't try to kill her!"  
  
"Oh no, nothin' like that," Joey said sarcastically, approaching the scene. "Throwin' her down the stairs and causin' her to hit her head wouldn't kill her at all!"  
  
"I didn't do that!" Mr. Ivy pulled himself free from Seto's grip, causing a bony skeleton hand to drop out of his cloak.  
  
Mai glared and then picked it up. "Then why don't you tell us exactly what you *have* been doing?" she said fiercely.  
  
****  
  
Ishizu smiled and held her younger brother close, happy to be back with him and Rishid. "I spoke with one of the spirits," she said gravely. "It was Carol, Kasumi's sister. She did not commit suicide, as everyone has assumed."  
  
"You mean she . . . she was murdered?" Mokuba said softly.  
  
"Yes." Ishizu nodded solemnly.  
  
Marik's eyes narrowed. He knew how close he'd come to losing his sister and he hugged her tightly, looking up into her eyes. "I will catch the person responsible," he vowed. "I've nearly lost both you and Rishid today and I will not stand for this any longer!"  
  
Mokuba looked at his best friend worriedly. "But Marik, you don't know what you might be up against!"  
  
"Then I will find out," Marik retorted. "They will rue the day they ever decided to trifle with me!"  
  
****  
  
Mr. Ivy glared at the teenagers furiously, twisting the skeleton hand around in his own. "Hey, all I wanted to do was give everyone a big scare!" he grumbled.  
  
"So you dressed up in this crazy Ringwraith costume and started terrorizing everyone?!" Joey glared.  
  
"I think it was deeper than that," Seto grunted. "There's something here that you don't want anyone to find out about, isn't there." He looked pointedly at Mr. Ivy.  
  
"At this broken-down dump? Not a chance!" Mr. Ivy turned to go. "I . . . I . . . wanted to catch the real culprits behind what happened to Ishizu and the others!"  
  
"Oh sure . . . we believe that," Joey said, crossing his arms.  
  
"It's true," Mr. Ivy continued to lie. "But I'm tired of talking to you brats. I have things to do!" Without warning he knocked the flashlight Seto was holding to the ground, sending them plunging into darkness again. By the time Seto retrieved the light and clicked it back on, Mr. Ivy had vanished.  
  
****  
  
Ishizu sat up in bed, continuing to smile as her exhausted brother slept in her arms. It had been years since Marik had drifted off hugging his sister. There were many times now when he acted as sweet and innocent as he had ten years before, and Ishizu always enjoyed it when he did. "Dear brother," she whispered.  
  
Marik shifted in his sleep, mumbling something about how he couldn't lose Ishizu and Rishid. Moaning, he snuggled closer and clung to his sister, who looked at him in concern and stroked his hair.  
  
"Do not fear, Marik," she said gently. "You haven't lost us."  
  
Marik smiled faintly and then went still again, sleeping peacefully now.  
  
Rishid looked a bit concerned as he watched his brother sleep. "He must be exhausted," the man commented.  
  
Ishizu nodded slowly. "What are you thinking, Rishid?" she asked.  
  
"I hate to say such things," Rishid replied, "but are we certain his sleep is completely natural?"  
  
Ishizu looked down at her brother, also growing anxious. "Marik?" she whispered. He couldn't have been drugged in some way . . . could he have?  
  
Marik continued to embrace Ishizu almost frantically, mumbling something in Egyptian.  
  
"He is having disturbing dreams," Ishizu remarked, gently touching her brother's shoulder. "Marik? Wake up, dear brother."  
  
Marik suddenly gave a pained cry and looked up, his eyes wide open even though he was still asleep. "Ishizu!! Rishid!!" he screamed.  
  
Rishid hastened over and embraced Marik from the other side. "We are here, Master," he said comfortingly.  
  
Marik shuddered and then relaxed slowly with a soft moan. After a moment he blinked and looked up at his brother and sister. "I had a vision," he said quietly. "This isn't over yet . . . and neither of you are out of danger." He hugged them both worriedly.  
  
Ishizu rubbed her hand over his back gently. "It will be alright," she tried to reassure him.  
  
****  
  
Shadi stood up and walked to the panel slowly, his eyes narrowed. Someone is there, he said silently, abruptly pulling the slab of wood away and causing the eavesdropper to fall on the floor.  
  
"What is your business here?" Shadi asked sternly.  
  
A baffled Tristan looked up. "So you *are* here!" he exclaimed, blinking at the Egyptian towering over him.  
  
"How did you find us?" Alyson wanted to know, her maroon eyes wide.  
  
Tristan shrugged. "I don't know," he admitted. "I just followed this weird tunnel I found in the kitchen." He sat up and looked around. "So there really are people being kept prisoner down here?!" he cried indignantly.  
  
"That is correct," Shadi said with a slow nod.  
  
"Well why don't you get them out of here?!" Tristan demanded.  
  
Shadi looked at him calmly. "When the time is right," was all he said. He had his reasons for not helping them out of the basement yet. For one thing, he was hoping that the grandmother would be able to remember more of her visions. If and when she did, the safest place for her and Alyson would be the basement. Shadi wasn't certain what Lou was up to this time, but he was determined to stop him.  
  
****  
  
Téa paced the floor, her eyes narrowed in worry.  
  
"There has to be something we can do here!" she said to Yugi.  
  
Lorelei descended the stairs, looking grim. "There's going to be a flood," she declared, heading to the window. "The river is about to overflow."  
  
"What?!" Yugi gasped.  
  
Lorelei pulled the curtain back, revealing the harsh, heavy rains that were falling. "There's no way to stop it. The water's gonna be coming this way anytime."  
  
"What can we do to help?" Téa asked.  
  
Lorelei smiled wearily at her. "The animals need to be secured, but Bart and the other ranch hands are taking care of that."  
  
"Is Mr. Ivy there?" Rex wanted to know, suddenly appearing in the doorway.  
  
"I think so," Lorelei replied. "Why?"  
  
Rex then told her of his experiences in the last few moments, to which Lorelei narrowed her eyes in suspicion and disbelief. "Ivy? Working with the cloaked creatures? That's hard for me to believe."  
  
Rex was about to go on to tell her about those locked in the basement when Joey crashed into him without warning.  
  
"Hey!" Rex cried, disgruntled.  
  
Joey ignored him. "Mokuba's missing!" he yelled.  
  
That got everyone's attention.  
  
"Oh no!" Téa exclaimed in alarm.  
  
"I thought he was with Marik!" Yugi gasped.  
  
"He was!" Joey replied. "But he left shortly after Ishizu woke up."  
  
"She's awake?" Yugi interrupted.  
  
"Yeah," Joey nodded absent-mindedly. "Mokuba left to give them some time alone. Marik warned him to be careful and not to go alone, but Mokuba said that Kaiba was just at the end of the hall and that he would be fine. But Kaiba hasn't seen him at all!"  
  
"You mean that *wasn't* him at the end of the hall?!" Téa interjected, trying to make sense of things.  
  
"I guess not," Joey shrugged. "He's going ballistic! And in light of everything that's gone on, I don't blame the guy!"  
  
Upstairs they could hear Seto yelling at someone.  
  
"He sounds angry," Yugi declared. "But is he yelling at Marik?!"  
  
"Yeah," Joey said again. "At least he was. Marik feels really bad about all this. He said he'll go find Mokuba. Rishid didn't want him to go alone, but I think he's already taken off. And now Kaiba's yelling at Rishid while they're looking for Mokuba. Ishizu's trying to get him to calm down and stop bein' rude to her brothers."  
  
"We'll all have to split up and help look!" Yugi cried. "Mokuba could be in terrible danger!"  
  
"And he probably is, too," Téa moaned.  
  
****  
  
Mokuba, meanwhile, was running out into the hall. "Seto!" he called, opening the back door. "What's going on?!" He shielded himself from the pouring rain and squinted, staring ahead. Before long he spotted Seto walking determinedly toward the stable, apparently ignoring anyone around him.  
  
"Seto!" Mokuba screamed in frustration. "Come back!!" He ran out into the downpour just as lightning struck nearby. The boy gave a cry of surprise and leaped aside, his heart pounding. "Something's not right here! That can't be Seto!"  
  
"How right you are, little Mokuba," a wicked voice hissed as bony hands reached out to grab him.  
  
"Wha?! Hey!!" Mokuba struggled helplessly. "Let me go!! Big brother!! Help!!"  
  
Abruptly the assailant groaned and slumped over, his grip on Mokuba loosening. Marik was standing there, his hand raised in a position to grab something. His eyes were narrowed in a dangerous manner, but his expression lightened as he looked at Mokuba.  
  
"Marik!" Mokuba grinned, hugging his friend. "What was that thing and what did you do to it?!"  
  
Marik smiled and winked. "I know a few things about pressure points," he replied. "This 'thing' is nothing more than an actor in a costume." He knelt down and pulled the cloak back to find a stranger there. "Let's get him back inside before he comes to."  
  
Just as the boy reached down to yank the man up, his eyes snapped open and he grabbed Marik's neck.  
  
Mokuba's eyes widened and he began hitting the man to distract him. "Leave Marik alone!" he screamed.  
  
Furious, the man turned, letting go of Marik, and threw Mokuba out into the open field. The boy lay dazed, staring up into the stormy sky.  
  
"He could get struck by lightning!" Marik cried.  
  
"Maybe that's the idea," the man sneered.  
  
Marik's eyes narrowed and he ran forward to help his friend up.  
  
"You have to get out of here, Mokuba!" he declared firmly as the thunder boomed.  
  
Mokuba nodded shakily, looking upset. "Where did that creep go?!" he burst out, seeing that their attacker had vanished.  
  
"Not far," a voice spoke up from behind them. Again the man reached for Mokuba.  
  
"Leave me alone, you big jerk!" Mokuba yelled, kicking him on the shin.  
  
The man cried in pain and then snarled. "Why you little . . ." He raised a crowbar viciously.  
  
Abruptly Marik tackled him from behind, trying to wrench the weapon out of his hand. They grappled for some time, neither one willing to give up. Mokuba stood to the side, unsure of what to do to help.  
  
Without warning a bolt of lightning flashed from the sky and struck both Marik and his opponent. They screamed in agony and crumpled to the ground while Mokuba watched in disbelief and horror. "Marik!!" he shrieked.  
  
After a moment the burly man, who had only been grazed, got up and looked around dazedly. He kicked Marik disdainfully and glowered at Mokuba before shakily disappearing into the cloudy night. The rain had temporarily stopped, but that would still do nothing to stop the oncoming flood.  
  
But, returning to our current problem, Mokuba barely noticed or cared that the man had left. The younger Kaiba was kneeling next to Marik, feeling frantic. The older boy's gold jewelry had channeled the electricity, causing him to be hurt far worse than his attacker had been. Luckily, Marik hadn't sustained any burns, but the experience had been quite a shock to his system.  
  
"Marik!" his young friend screamed. "Marik!! Get up!!!"  
  
He tried for some time to get the Egyptian boy to respond and then finally crawled under his limp arm in despair, all the while pleading for someone to come help.  
  
Marik's eyes slowly flickered open. "Mokuba . . . what happened?" he asked weakly, his voice a bit slurred and confused.  
  
Instantly Mokuba perked up. "Marik!!" He smiled brightly and hugged the injured boy. "You got struck by lightning!" he explained seriously.  
  
Marik winced and tried to get up. Mokuba rushed to assist him and Marik leaned against him, feeling weak.  
  
"Can you make it back to the ranch house?" Mokuba asked worriedly.  
  
"I think so," Marik replied, though he felt like he was about to go under again.  
  
Sensing this, Mokuba knew they'd have to hurry. Somehow he managed to support his friend until they got back to the front door, where Marik promptly collapsed and lay still.  
  
Even though Mokuba had been expecting it, his heart still leaped to his throat. "Marik!!" he sobbed.  
  
Rishid, hearing the commotion, immediately came out from where he had been searching for his brother and for Mokuba. "Master Marik!!" he cried, kneeling down to pick up the boy's almost ragdoll-like body.  
  
"Please, you gotta do something!" Mokuba wailed. "He got struck by lightning!!"  
  
Rishid looked up at Mokuba in astonishment while the boy blurted out the entire story of what had happened. Tenderly he laid Marik's body down on the couch and began examining his adopted brother in immense concern.  
  
Lorelei chose that moment to tear past, her red hair flying out behind her. "What's going on?" she demanded.  
  
"What do you mean?" Mokuba asked, seeing that she wasn't paying much attention to Marik.  
  
"Who was shot?!" Lorelei wanted to know.  
  
"Huh?!" Mokuba blinked. "No one was shot! Marik got struck by lightning, but . . ."  
  
"No, I heard a gun go off!" Lorelei insisted. "Someone's been shot!" 


	14. Explosive Results

"WHAT?!" Mokuba screamed, going pale. "Where's my brother?! Maybe he got hurt!"  
  
Rishid shook his head. "I have not seen him." Gently he began bathing Marik's face and arms with a damp cloth.  
  
At that moment Ishizu and Yami Yugi came out from the dining room, both trying to support a bleeding Seto.  
  
"Big brother!!" Mokuba wailed, knowing that Seto would never allow such a thing unless he himself was unable to have a say in the matter.  
  
Yami Yugi looked up grimly. "He was shot in the side."  
  
Mokuba gave a shriek and ran forward. "Seto!!" He felt as if he was going to break down and cry. The two people he loved most were both hurt—and probably seriously.  
  
Seto opened his eyes and weakly tried to pull away from his arch-rival. "I don't need your help, Pharaoh," he growled.  
  
"You need both our help, Seto Kaiba," Ishizu said evenly. Catching sight of her brother's still form on the couch, the Egyptian woman let out a horrified gasp and nearly let go of the boy she was trying to help steady.  
  
Lorelei rushed over. "How did this happen?" she demanded.  
  
"The assailant was hidden," Yami Yugi told her. "Joey tried to go after them, but they got away." He narrowed his eyes in annoyance.  
  
Seto again tried to pull away, this time succeeding. "I said I don't need your help," he insisted, taking a few steps forward. Ishizu watched him and then rushed to her brother's side.  
  
"Seto!!" Mokuba cried. "Please let them help you, big brother!!"  
  
The older Kaiba looked down at him and ruffled his hair. "Don't worry about me, kid," he said firmly. "But where have you been?!" Now he gave the younger boy a stern look.  
  
"Please don't be mad, Seto," Mokuba begged, explaining what had happened.  
  
"You thought you saw me?!" Seto burst out, clenching his fists.  
  
"I want to know what this person you were fighting with looked like," Lorelei declared.  
  
Shakily Mokuba tried to describe him, all the while looking back and forth between Seto and Marik. "Actually," the little boy admitted now in realization, "he kinda was like Rishid—big and strong and tough . . ."  
  
"Perhaps he was Rishid's double, then," Yami Yugi suggested.  
  
"Most likely," Seto grunted.  
  
Ishizu stroked Marik's hair tenderly and then looked up at the others, her blue eyes aflame with a fire that often wasn't seen on the normally calm woman's face. "Someone must find that man," she said in a low voice.  
  
"I'll have Bart go after him," Lorelei promised. "I can't imagine who he'd be."  
  
"Someone needs to help my brother!" Mokuba said loudly.  
  
Seto turned to limp up the stairs. "I can take care of myself," he muttered. "The bullet went through me. It's just a flesh wound."  
  
Téa, just happening to be coming out from where she had been searching, suddenly met up with him at the landing and gave a cry of alarm. "Kaiba!! Look at yourself!!" she burst out.  
  
Seto walked around her and headed for his room. "Don't pay any attention to what the others may tell you," he said, closing the door. "I'm fine."  
  
Knowing it was useless to protest, Téa hurried downstairs and into the den. "What happened to Kaiba?!" she cried.  
  
"Someone shot him!!" Mokuba wailed, torn between going upstairs with his brother and staying downstairs with his best friend.  
  
Sensing Mokuba's confusion, Ishizu gathered her younger brother into her arms and held him close. "Go to your brother, little Mokuba," she said softly. "Rishid and I will tell you when Marik awakens."  
  
With a grateful smile, Mokuba hurried up the stairs and to the room he shared with Seto.  
  
Téa watched all of this with an expression of utter disbelief and horror. "This is terrible!" she moaned.  
  
"What is?" Joey asked, coming up behind her.  
  
Téa jumped a mile. "Don't do that!!" she screamed at the Brooklyn boy.  
  
Yami Yugi crossed his arms and turned to look at Joey. "It seems that our problems cannot cease for even a moment," he remarked, completely serious.  
  
"Yeah? And what about those people locked in the basement?" Joey wanted to know, suddenly remembering about them.  
  
Lorelei perked up. "What people locked in the basement?!" she demanded.  
  
"I dunno. Just some lady and her granddaughter," Joey replied with a shrug.  
  
Lorelei's eyes narrowed. "You know somethin'? I'm getting tired of everything going on under my nose!" she said angrily, heading for the door that led out to the small entranceway where the stairs were. "How could something like this happen?!" She threw her hands up in vexation and then slammed the door shut on the others.  
  
Joey winced. "Man, she's pretty mad."  
  
Téa gave him a Look. "As if someone wouldn't be mad to find out that people have been held prisoner right in their own basement!"  
  
Yami Yugi crossed the room to the door and tried the knob. "Just as I suspected," he murmured.  
  
"What is it?" Rishid asked, looking up from where he and Ishizu were tending to their brother.  
  
"We have been locked in," Yami Yugi replied grimly.  
  
****  
  
Alyson looked up at Shadi in wonder. "How did you get the panel open?" she wanted to know. "I thought it could only open from the other side!"  
  
"The youth unlocked it," Shadi replied, indicating Tristan.  
  
Tristan glared. "Look, I want some real answers!" he yelled in frustration. "What's the point of not getting these people out of here?!"  
  
Shadi regarded him calmly, then suddenly looked ahead and narrowed his eyes. "This was the safest place for them to be . . . but now it seems that things have changed."  
  
"Huh?" Tristan blinked. "What do you mean?!"  
  
Saying nothing, Shadi instead lifted Alyson and placed her on her grandmother's lap, then took out the Ankh and prepared to open a portal. "Because of new developments, they shall not survive if they remain here now."  
  
"Why not?!" Tristan yelled.  
  
Alyson hugged her grandmother and looked up at Tristan. "The bad people are coming after us again," she explained. "But Shadi's gonna protect us!"  
  
Tristan crossed his arms and looked frustrated.  
  
The elderly woman suddenly gave a gasp of dismay and her eyes widened. "I had another vision," she whispered. "I've seen people being attacked all over the ranch tonight. And suddenly I remember why it's happening!"  
  
****  
  
Yugi wandered down the long halls, calling for his Yami and glancing about nervously.  
  
"Why would someone shoot Kaiba?" he asked himself. "Was it a random attack or did they have a specific reason?"  
  
"What?!" Bakura gasped, coming up behind him. "Someone shot Kaiba?!"  
  
Yugi jumped a foot into the air. "Bakura!!" he exclaimed. "Yeah, someone did shoot him! It happened right in there." He pointed back toward the dining room. "The shooter just vanished! No one can find him or her anywhere!"  
  
"Oh my!" Bakura's eye widened. "How dreadful! Is he hurt badly?!"  
  
"Well, you know how Kaiba is," Yugi sighed. "But what about you, Bakura? Are you feeling any better after what happened earlier?"  
  
Bakura nodded shakily. "Y-yes, I'm alright," he replied. Oreo peeked up out of his shirt and meowed.  
  
Yugi chuckled. "Where's your Yami?" he asked.  
  
"Well, I thought he was in one of the other rooms," Bakura said slowly.  
  
At that moment there was a crash and an angry yell from a room just across the hall. While Yugi and Bakura watched in astonishment, Yami Bakura emerged from the room with a lampshade on his head.  
  
"Yami! What on earth?!" Bakura cried, trying to keep a straight face.  
  
"Shut up," Yami Bakura growled in reply.  
  
"Is someone in there?" Yugi asked, also struggling not to laugh.  
  
"No," Yami Bakura grunted. At least, he added to himself, not anyone mortal.  
  
Abruptly Bart burst in through the back door and stood, dripping wet, in front of the trio and their cat. "The water's coming this way," he said. "We have to put masking tape on all the windows to try to keep them from breaking."  
  
"Oh!" Yugi cried, his eyes widening.  
  
"How much time do we have?" Bakura exclaimed.  
  
"Probably not nearly enough," Bart replied, dashing off down the hall.  
  
****  
  
Mokuba watched as Seto cleaned and bandaged the gunshot wound, his blue-gray eyes filled with worry and alarm.  
  
"Big brother, are you *sure* you're alright?!" he cried. "You were bleeding so much!"  
  
Seto smiled at him and went to wash the blood off his hands. "I'm fine, kid. Really. These wounds always look worse than they actually are."  
  
Without warning a frantic knocking came at the door and both Kaiba brothers jumped.  
  
"Get that, will you, Mokuba?" Seto said, disappearing into the small dressing room to replace his shirt and trenchcoat.  
  
"Sure," Mokuba replied, running to the door.  
  
"Mokuba?"  
  
He could make out Bakura's worried voice and the little boy quickly hauled the wooden door open. "Bakura! What's up?" he asked.  
  
"Well . . ." Bakura scratched his cheek. "Can I come in and put tape on your windows?" he asked, feeling a bit silly.  
  
Mokuba blinked. "Huh?!" he exclaimed.  
  
Quickly Bakura explained about the approaching flood and Mokuba's eyes went wide.  
  
"Sure!" he cried. "Come on in!"  
  
****  
  
"Locked in?!" Joey burst out. "What the?! Why would Lorelei lock us in?!"  
  
"Maybe it was an accident," Téa suggested.  
  
Yami Yugi paused, seeming to sense more danger. When Téa glanced about, she noticed that Ishizu had perked up as well.  
  
"A torrent of water is coming," the Egyptian woman said softly. "It is almost here."  
  
"She is right," Yami Yugi said grimly.  
  
Without questioning them, the others quickly went about preparing things and praying that the entire house wouldn't be washed away by the flood.  
  
"It will be alright," Ishizu said evenly before turning her complete attention back to her brother and holding him close.  
  
Marik shuddered and snuggled closer to her in his unconsciousness.  
  
In the next instant the sound of rushing water grew increasingly imminent and loud. Suddenly it was pounding against the house viciously as it ripped past, slamming into the windows and cracking them and nearly tearing the door off its hinges. Then, as suddenly as it had come, it was gone, heading off toward the forest and the creek.  
  
Téa dared to look up from her position underneath a desk. "It's over?" she said in surprise.  
  
"I believe so," Yami Yugi replied.  
  
"Alright!" Joey grinned, leaping up. "Now to bust this lock. . . ." With that he crashed into the door, weakening it.  
  
"Lorelei will be pretty angry if you break her door," Téa remarked.  
  
"Hey, she'll havta deal with it," Joey shrugged.  
  
Rishid didn't pay any attention to them. Instead he moved closer to Ishizu and gently took Marik's limp hand into his own. Rishid knew only too well how painful being struck by lightning could be, and he hated seeing Marik have to go through it. At least the boy is unconscious and cannot feel the pain, he said to himself.  
  
Marik grabbed onto Rishid's hand and squeezed it tightly, almost as if he were holding on for dear life.  
  
"It's alright, Master Marik," Rishid whispered comfortingly.  
  
****  
  
Shadi turned to look at the woman sternly as he made his portal. "You have kept the memories of the criminal's identity suppressed for years," he remarked. "Now suddenly they are coming to light again?"  
  
The woman nodded shakily. "I . . . I don't know what it is, but suddenly I remember," she said.  
  
Abruptly the door broke in and a shadowy figure stood there.  
  
"Too bad you'll just have to forget again . . . permanently," it hissed, throwing a small grenade into the portal with them just as they vanished.  
  
"What the?!" Tristan gasped, his hazel eyes widening. "There's a bomb in here!!"  
  
"If we can arrive at our destination before it goes off, we will be safe," Shadi replied.  
  
"Yeah?! And just what are the odds of that happening?!" Tristan demanded, his voice climbing.  
  
Before Shadi could answer, they emerged from the other side of the portal into one of the other rooms of the house—just as the grenade went off! 


	15. Duel to the Death

Tristan let out a gasp as he was forcefully thrown from the portal and into a desk. "Oh man," he muttered. "Hey, is everyone okay?!"  
  
"That was quite a ride," the elderly woman remarked.  
  
Alyson was completely pale, her eyes wide. She was grabbing onto Shadi's arm tightly and shaking with fright.  
  
Shadi was laying dazed on the floor. He didn't move at first, but then he slowly pulled himself up and looked around. "We escaped the grenade, but we are not out of danger yet. Indeed, I fear we are walking into even more peril," he announced gravely.  
  
"Oh great," Tristan muttered.  
  
****  
  
Joey finally broke through the door and looked around triumphantly. "Alright! Freedom!" He grinned widely. "Let's go find out what's goin' on!"  
  
"Wait, Joey!" Yami Yugi cried in vain as the Brooklyn boy ran off.  
  
"There he goes again," Téa sighed.  
  
"Will you be alright here?" Yami Yugi asked of Ishizu and Rishid. "Someone should go after him."  
  
"We will be fine," Ishizu replied, cradling her younger brother gently.  
  
Yami Yugi nodded slowly and turned away.  
  
"I'm coming with you," Téa said firmly.  
  
"Very well then," Yami Yugi said, disappearing out the door with Téa in tow. This left the Ishtars alone in the room.  
  
Rishid held Marik's hand again as the boy frantically grabbed for both him and Ishizu. Thoughts and memories tumbled through his mind as Marik snuggled closer.  
  
"It's been such a long day," Ishizu whispered, stroking Marik's hair. Tears filled her eyes. "When will it end?" she said in despair.  
  
Marik gave a soft moan and mumbled something in Egyptian.  
  
"It's alright, my brother," Ishizu said softly. Suddenly she let out a gasp and stared ahead, her Millennium Tauk glowing brightly.  
  
"What is it?" Rishid asked in concern.  
  
"Evil," Ishizu replied grimly, holding Marik closer. "Something—or someone—wicked is approaching."  
  
Marik's eyes fluttered open. "Sister?" he rasped.  
  
Ishizu squeezed his hand. "I am here, Marik," she said comfortingly.  
  
"Are you hurt badly, Master?" Rishid looked at his younger brother, relieved to see him awake after his sudden collapse.  
  
Marik smiled weakly. "No, I am alright. But Rishid, you and Ishizu are in danger!" he cried, struggling to sit up straight.  
  
"Master Marik, please! You must rest," Rishid said worriedly, trying to gently push him down. "We will be safe. Do not worry."  
  
Marik shook his head. "I had another vision," he said frantically, clutching at both Rishid's and Ishizu's wrists. "This ranch was built over an old burial ground, and the spirits of those buried here are not pleased. They want to topple the ranch at all costs, and now they are coming after the both of you!"  
  
Ishizu's Millennium Tauk glowed again. The Egyptian woman touched it carefully, her eyes narrowing. "You are correct, brother," she announced gravely. "These spirits even summoned the lightning you were struck down with." A furious expression came over her face as she said this.  
  
"Have these . . . spirits been the ones behind everything here?" Rishid wanted to know, also outraged.  
  
Marik paused, trying to recall everything he'd seen. "I . . . I don't think so," he admitted. "There are others at work here as well."  
  
Several dark-robed figures suddenly slid through the walls from all sides, apparently trying to trap the Ishtars in the room.  
  
Ishizu glared at them, instantly deciphering what they must be. "We did nothing to you," she said in a dangerous, low tone. "We did nothing and yet you have tormented us all, trying to kill us, and even harming my brothers."  
  
The spectre in the lead hissed at her and moved forward as if to attack.  
  
Instantly Marik struggled to stand up and got in between them. "Touch her and you'll be begging for the fires of the underworld, which is the only place you belong!" he snarled.  
  
"Master Marik, please be careful," Rishid said worriedly.  
  
The apparition reached out with a clawed hand and took a swipe at him. Rishid narrowed his eyes and stepped out of the way. Deep slash marks appeared in the couch.  
  
Marik clenched his fists furiously. "We would leave this blasted place if we could!" he growled at the ghouls.  
  
"It is not our fault that this ranch was built on your graves," Ishizu said quietly, trying to calm herself down. "You have no right to do what you are doing."  
  
Another apparition lunged, clawing her on her arm. Ishizu let out a gasp and clutched at her wound as blood dripped from it.  
  
"Sister!!" Marik screamed, turning to look up at the ghost as it and its colleagues began to melt back into the shadows. "Go on and run!!" he yelled, pressing a handkerchief against the slashes in his sister's arm. "Attack innocents and then run like the cowards you are!!"  
  
Ishizu looked up at him and smiled weakly. "I am alright, Marik," she said, wincing as she said it.  
  
"You're hurt!" Marik replied, his eyes shining with worry.  
  
Rishid hastened over as well, examining the wound. "I believe it's not as bad as it looks," he said at last, helping Marik tie the handkerchief on as a temporary bandage.  
  
Marik nodded shakily and continued to look at his sister with concern.  
  
Ishizu found herself leaning against him and Rishid slightly. "I . . . I feel so weak," she murmured, placing a hand to her forehead.  
  
"Sister?" Marik gave her such a frightened look that it pained her more than the wound did.  
  
"Do not fear, my dear brother," Ishizu whispered, touching his cheek gently.  
  
Marik smiled shakily and grabbed her hand, holding it close.  
  
****  
  
Mako was wandering down the long corridors, unable to sleep, when he met up with Mai coming from the other direction.  
  
"Did you hear it too?" Mai greeted him.  
  
"The explosion?" Mako nodded. "I did. It sounded extremely close."  
  
"And yet . . ." Mai blinked. "It doesn't seem like anything's on fire."  
  
That was when Tristan, Shadi, and an unknown girl and woman all appeared from a nearby room.  
  
"What's going on around here?" Mai demanded, staring at them.  
  
"We nearly all got creamed!" Tristan replied.  
  
"By a bomb?" Mako asked, instantly alert.  
  
"Actually, yeah." Tristan scratched the back of his neck. "You heard it?"  
  
"Hon, I'm sure the entire state of Nebraska heard it," Mai retorted.  
  
"It went off in the portal," Alyson piped up, looking over at the newcomers from where she had her arms firmly around Shadi's neck. "Someone threw it at us!"  
  
"That's abominable!" Mako cried. "Who did it?"  
  
Shadi looked at him. "Someone very dangerous," he replied, uttering their attacker's name.  
  
"What?!" Mai gasped.  
  
"It can't be!" Mako narrowed his eyes.  
  
"It was," Shadi said tiredly.  
  
"We have to stop them!" Mai declared angrily.  
  
"And we will." Shadi clutched the Ankh. "But first these two need a place to stay where they will be safe."  
  
"Oh, is that right?"  
  
The new voice made everyone look up. Mr. Ivy was standing there, grinning maniacally.  
  
"I'm sorry," he purred, "but I don't think you'll be going anywhere." Slowly he raised a machine gun at them all.  
  
****  
  
Mokuba gasped as he heard all the commotion downstairs. "Seto, something's wrong again!" he exclaimed.  
  
Seto grunted. "Then that's all the more reason for you to stay in here, kid," he replied, moving over to the door cautiously.  
  
"Someone might be hurt again!" Mokuba insisted. "Maybe even Marik! I've gotta go find out!!"  
  
Seto turned to look at him. "Ishizu said she'd tell you if Marik woke up," he said, not wanting Mokuba to go out into the unknown dangers beyond their door.  
  
"But maybe something happened and she wasn't able to!" Mokuba retorted, which, of course, was exactly what had happened.  
  
"Mokuba, I don't want you to go out there," Seto said firmly.  
  
The little boy looked up at him with bright, shining blue-gray eyes. "Seto, I have to," he said softly. "Don't you understand, big brother? Someone else might be in trouble and I have to know."  
  
Seto clenched his fists and looked away. "You're a better person than I am, Mokuba," he murmured under his breath.  
  
"That's not true, big brother," Mokuba said, shaking his head, "but please . . . you've gotta let me go. Please!!" He grabbed Seto's hand and continued to gaze up at him unwaveringly.  
  
At last Seto heaved a sigh and slowly opened the door. "Of course," he said quietly. "Of course you can go, kid."  
  
Mokuba beamed at him. "You're the best, Seto!" he declared, hurrying off.  
  
Seto shook his head and then chased after him. "Mokuba! Wait for me!" he yelled.  
  
****  
  
It wasn't long before Joey was into a predicament of his own.  
  
"Hey . . . what gives?" he cried aloud as the lights all abruptly went off in the room he was in.  
  
Without warning a thumping sound came from a nearby closet and the Brooklyn boy perked up, his senses sharply alert. Cautiously he grabbed a nearby vase as a weapon and advanced on the closet, suddenly throwing the door open and preparing to drop the vase.  
  
"Watch it!!" Rex yelled, ducking just as the vase shattered to the floor. "What are you tryin' to do, force me into a coma from head trauma?!"  
  
Joey blinked at him in the darkness. "Raptor?! What the heck are you doin' in there?!"  
  
"Someone shoved me in and locked the door!" Rex growled, narrowing his eyes.  
  
A low creaking sound came from the other side of the room.  
  
"Yeah?" Joey tensed. "And it sounds like they're still here!"  
  
****  
  
"You again!" Mai cried angrily, glaring daggers at Mr. Ivy.  
  
"What are you doing with the gun?!" Tristan demanded. "Put it down before someone gets hurt!"  
  
Mr. Ivy only grinned. "Oh, someone's going to get hurt, alright," he said.  
  
"Stop!" The elderly woman yelled in rage.  
  
Mr. Ivy looked at her and blinked. "You wanna be first?" he sneered.  
  
Shadi set Alyson down and stepped forward, the Ankh held tightly in his hand. "No one will be first," he said stonily.  
  
"Ah, the legendary protector," Mr. Ivy said sarcastically. "I've heard so much about you through the years. Let's see just how good of a fighter you really are." Without giving Shadi any time to defend himself, the wicked man fired off a round of machine gun bullets, catching Shadi right in the side.  
  
Alyson let out a scream as the Egyptian doubled over in pain.  
  
"Not so tough, are you?" Mr. Ivy grunted. "I was expecting a real fight, but it seems like I'm going to be disappointed."  
  
Shadi narrowed his eyes and straightened up, ignoring the blood pouring from his wounds. "And you shall have it," he said stonily, redirecting the next burst of gunfire with his Ankh and sending it back at his assailant.  
  
Mr. Ivy cried out as it struck him right in the shoulder, but then his face twisted into an evil grin. "Maybe I won't be disappointed yet," he remarked. "Ours will be a duel to the very death. Winner takes the spoils." He gestured to those gathered around.  
  
Shadi remained expressionless. "Very well then," he said, half-turning. "You have chosen." 


	16. It's Not Over Yet

Alyson shrieked. "No, Shadi, no!! You can't fight!! You're hurt!!"  
  
"Is he nuts?!" Tristan gasped.  
  
"Either that or he knows he'll have some sort of advantage," Mai said slowly. "But he can't use that gold piece to defend him forever."  
  
"Shadi's gonna win," Alyson said stubbornly. "He always wins!!"  
  
Shadi ignored their conversation and instead concentrated solely on his battle with Mr. Ivy. "Before we begin this, there is something I would like to know," the Egyptian man said sternly.  
  
Mr. Ivy looked at him impatiently. "Yeah? And what's that?"  
  
"What will you gain from all of this?" Shadi narrowed his eyes. "Are you Lou's henchman, perhaps? Has he agreed to give you part of the profit he hopes to make from the oil well on the property?"  
  
"Wait a minute, what oil well?" Mai asked, blinking. Both Shadi and Mr. Ivy ignored her.  
  
Mr. Ivy sneered. "Maybe. Or maybe it's just been too long since I've had a real duel."  
  
"You've done this before?!" Tristan's eyes went wide in disbelief.  
  
"You'd best let them alone," Mako spoke up hastily. "Once they begin their match, Shadi will need all the concentration he can get."  
  
Mr. Ivy positioned his machine gun and smirked at his opponent. "Shall we?"  
  
Shadi narrowed his eyes and raised his Ankh.  
  
"Not very talkative, are you?" Mr. Ivy chuckled.  
  
Shadi ignored that.  
  
"Oh, alright, let's start then." Mr. Ivy gave him a maniacal look. "It will be interesting to see how long you can hold up against my state-of-the-art machine gun."  
  
"Likewise, I shall be intrigued to see how you fare against a Millennium Item," Shadi retorted.  
  
"This is madness!" Mai exclaimed.  
  
"It will all be over shortly," Shadi said, not even looking back at her. "This was not my choice, but it must be done."  
  
****  
  
When Mokuba arrived downstairs, he was horrified at the sight of blood splattered across the wall of the den. "What's happened?!" he cried in alarm, seeing Rishid and running over to him.  
  
"Lady Ishizu was wounded by the apparitions haunting this ranch," was the grim reply. "Master Marik is trying to comfort her."  
  
Mokuba's eyes widened. "Marik's awake?" he exclaimed, worry now building for Ishizu.  
  
Rishid nodded. "They are both right in here," he said, leading Mokuba around the corner.  
  
Marik looked up from where he was cradling Ishizu against his chest. "Mokuba!" he said, smiling weakly at his friend.  
  
Mokuba ran over and climbed up on the couch. "I'm glad you're okay, Marik," he declared, "but what's happened to Ishizu?" His blue-gray eyes were full of worry and concern.  
  
Ishizu lifted her gaze and looked over at him. "I am alright," she tried to say, straightening up and shuddering slightly.  
  
"Sister, you were so dazed!" Marik protested.  
  
Ishizu shakily laid a hand on Marik's shoulder. "I am fine," she said firmly, gently brushing a piece of his long blonde hair aside.  
  
Marik smiled at that but still looked upset. "I had that vision about you and Rishid still being in danger," he reminded her.  
  
Mokuba gasped. "You did?!" he interrupted.  
  
Marik nodded absentmindedly and looked at Ishizu for her reply.  
  
"I remember about that," Ishizu assured him. "But this is only a scratch. It merely disoriented me for a few moments." Slowly she got to her feet, swaying slightly. Both Rishid and Marik rushed to her aid and she smiled up at them. "We should go find the others," the Egyptian woman announced.  
  
"But sister . . ." Marik tried to protest.  
  
"They're in danger," Ishizu broke in. "We must find them now." She left no room for arguments.  
  
****  
  
Yugi and Bakura, meanwhile, had also gotten lost and were in somewhat of a plight.  
  
"You have to hang on, Bakura!" Yugi cried, staring down at the poor British boy as he frantically clung to the edge of the hole in the floor he had fallen into. "Just a little bit more and I'll have you out!" Despite Yugi's short stature, he really was much tougher than he was given credit for—and quite strong as well. After all, during the tense moments at Pegasus's castle, he'd managed to pull Shadi up from the precipice where he'd been stranded in Yami Yugi's mind.  
  
Bakura gripped the linoleum as tightly as he possibly could and then let out a horrified gasp. "I say! Yugi, something's attacking me!!"  
  
Yugi's eyes went wide. "What?!" he exclaimed.  
  
Bakura struggled, swinging his body back and forth. "Yugi, there's something trying to grab at my legs!" he burst out.  
  
Immediately Yugi snatched Bakura's wrists, trying desperately to pull him out of the hole. "I . . . I think I've got you, Bakura," he said through gritted teeth.  
  
"Yes, but whatever's after me has me as well!!" Bakura replied, feeling like the rope in a tug-of-war game.  
  
Abruptly something slammed hard into Yugi, sending him flying into the hole along with Bakura. Both boys screamed as they descended down what seemed like an endless tunnel and then crashed in a tangled heap at the bottom.  
  
Yugi blinked, trying to get the room to stop spinning. "Bakura, are you okay?" he moaned.  
  
Bakura moaned as well, rubbing his backside. "I think I broke something," he said, slowly pulling a carrot out from underneath him. Both he and Yugi stared at it.  
  
"What's a carrot doing down here?" Yugi wondered.  
  
An evil laugh ricocheted around the room and Bakura gulped. "Perhaps we're about to find out?" he suggested.  
  
****  
  
Mr. Ivy sneered and gestured to the audience gathered around. "I would suggest you all move back a bit, unless you want to be inadvertently hit by one of your friend's misdirected attacks."  
  
"That wouldn't happen!" Alyson yelled angrily. "Shadi's much better at this than you! And he's good, unlike you are!"  
  
"Oh, but little girl, the 'good guys' don't always win. Not in my game." Mr. Ivy smirked, shooting off another round of gunfire. Shadi easily dodged it and used the Ankh to again redirect it at his opponent. Mr. Ivy dodged as well, letting it slam harmlessly into the wall.  
  
"Well," he said, surveying the newly-placed hole, "it seems that round was a stalemate. Shall we try again?"  
  
Shadi kept his Ankh raised, prepared for a surprise attack.  
  
Before long the two were engulfed in a cloud of debris and dust as gunshots and blasts from the Millennium Ankh rang out. Mai, Mako, Tristan, Alyson, and her grandmother all stared in horror and shock as blood flew out and landed on the floor and wall. Screams came from both Shadi and Mr. Ivy as they were wounded again and again.  
  
Alyson clutched at the arm of her grandmother's wheelchair, her maroon eyes widening. "He's hurt!!" she wailed. "He must be getting hurt terribly!"  
  
After another moment, Mr. Ivy was thrown backward against the wall, the cloud of plaster slowly beginning to clear. Blood streamed from his wounds and he gasped, staring at Shadi in shock. "You know," he managed to choke out, "your reputation as the guardian is really deserved."  
  
Shadi doubled over, his dark black curls falling across his face. He made no reply to Mr. Ivy's comment, instead clenching the Ankh tightly in his fist as blood trickled down over his fingers. It was obvious that he had been wounded just as seriously as his opponent had been, if not worse.  
  
"Maybe we should call this another stalemate?" Mr. Ivy grinned, bleary-eyed. "Or maybe I should simply hand the match to you, since I can't seem to get back up."  
  
Shadi opened one eye and looked at him suspiciously, suddenly noticing that the criminal was slowly raising a hidden pistol for one final shot—and aiming at Alyson. Knowing he was too weak to retaliate in time, the mysterious Egyptian managed to get in the way, allowing the shot to take him down instead. Alyson let out a shriek as Shadi collapsed to the floor and lay gasping for breath.  
  
Mr. Ivy laughed, the gun dropping from his grasp. "Or maybe I am the victor after all," he sneered just before he passed into oblivion.  
  
"You're a terrible man!" Alyson screamed at him, dropping to her knees next to her beloved Shadi and sobbing. "Shadi?! Shadi, say something!!"  
  
Shadi moaned once and then went limp as well, the Ankh slipping from his hand.  
  
"Shadi?!" Alyson whispered, her eyes widening in horror. "Someone's gotta do something!! He's hurt terrible!!" she screamed, looking up at the others helplessly.  
  
Quickly Mako and Tristan both knelt next to him, examining the many wounds.  
  
"This is bad," Mako said grimly. "He was injured at least four times. When that Ivy man could get a good shot at him, it really struck hard."  
  
Alyson covered her mouth in horror. "Is he . . . is he . . ." She trailed off, unable to complete the sentence.  
  
Her grandmother managed to roll herself over in her wheelchair. "It's going to be alright, Alyson," she said softly, laying her hand on the girl's shoulder.  
  
****  
  
Ishizu, meanwhile, was leading the others down a long hallway in determination.  
  
"Did you hear those gunshots?!" Mokuba gasped suddenly, stopping short right in the middle of the corridor.  
  
"I did," Marik said grimly.  
  
"And I don't like the sound of it," Seto remarked, coming up behind them without warning.  
  
"Big brother!" Mokuba smiled, running over and hugging him.  
  
Seto returned the smile and the hug and then looked up, narrowing his eyes. Without warning he kicked out and struck an attacking figure in a black cloak that was emerging from the wall.  
  
Mokuba gasped. "Where did he come from?!" he exclaimed.  
  
The spectre fell backward, the hood falling away from his face.  
  
"You!" Marik cried, staring at an infuriated Lou.  
  
"That's the guy who attacked us outside!" Mokuba burst out.  
  
Rishid came forward and grabbed Lou, restraining him from moving. "You caused my brother to be harmed," he growled low.  
  
Lou struggled, shoving his elbow into Rishid's chest. The other man grunted but didn't loosen his grip.   
  
"Frankly," Lou said at last after another futile attempt at freedom, "I don't care whether your brother was hurt or not."  
  
Ishizu blinked suddenly. "His voice . . ." she murmured. "He is the one who pushed me!"  
  
Lou glowered and cursed under his breath.  
  
"And you are also the one who has been impersonating Rishid!" Marik yelled. "You have some explaining to do before I send you to the Shadow Realm." Not that he really would, but it was terribly tempting. Marik narrowed his eyes. "I suppose you also pushed Rishid off the cliff!"  
  
Lou lashed out and kicked him on the shin. "And what if I did? I'm after my ultimate goal and no one is going to stop me!!" He kicked Rishid as well, but found that it didn't faze him in the least.  
  
"You're gonna pay for everything you've done to my friends!" Mokuba yelled. "What about Seto? Are you the one who shot him?"  
  
Lou's face twisted into a grin. "No. I'm not the one who uses the guns around here. Nor am I the one you really need to be worrying about."  
  
"What do you mean?" Seto snarled, getting right in his face.  
  
"Oh you'll find out soon enough," Lou replied, just as a horrible explosion ripped through the floor, knocking everyone off-balance! 


	17. Twisted Games

"What's going on?!" Mokuba shrieked, flying backward into Marik's arms as they both crashed into Ishizu. The Egyptian woman cried out in pain, pulling her injured arm out of the way.  
  
A mechanically altered voice laughed raucously. "Poor Ishizu," it cackled. "Your arm hurts, doesn't it?"  
  
Marik straightened up, helping Mokuba and Ishizu to regain their balance as well. "What have you done to her?!" the infuriated boy demanded.  
  
"Me? Well, technically, I didn't hurt her; my minions did that. But . . ." There was another wicked laugh. "I *am* the only one with the cure for the poison."  
  
"You poisoned her?!" Rishid rumbled.  
  
Ishizu moaned, going paler and grabbing for the wall's support. Marik ran to her, gathering the poor woman into his arms and feeling angry tears prick his eyes. "Ishizu has done nothing to you!" he screamed. "Give us the antidote for your damage before I hunt you down and force it out of you!"  
  
"You really are a protective brother, aren't you?" the voice purred. "Well, I'll tell you what. You get what I want and bring it to me, and we'll talk about it."  
  
"And why should he listen to you, you big bully?!" Mokuba snapped angrily;.  
  
The voice paused. "Oh, let's see. Maybe because Ishizu will die within the hour if he doesn't."  
  
Almost as if on cue, Ishizu screamed in anguish, her vision swimming.  
  
Tears streamed down Marik's cheeks as he held his sister close. "I'll have to play your game. What is it you want?!"  
  
The voice laughed. "I knew you'd see it my way. Good boy." There was another pause. "Now. Go to the desk in Joan's room. You'll find a map in the top drawer. Study it and go to the place marked 'Hollow Willow.' You'll get your next clue there."  
  
Rishid narrowed his eyes. "Master, we may be walking into a trap," he cautioned.  
  
Marik nodded. "I realize that, my brother, but we'll have to take that risk. Ishizu's life is at stake." He looked down as Ishizu grabbed onto him frantically in her delirium. "We can do nothing for her except pray. Meanwhile, we are expected to do more than simply sit back and wait, and I know I cannot do that anyway. We have to find this person before it's too late." Gently he stroked Ishizu's silky black hair, trying to comfort her.  
  
Mokuba laid his hand over Marik's. "We're in this together, buddy," he grinned. "We're gonna save Ishizu and then kick those bad guys into submission!"  
  
Marik looked briefly surprised at Mokuba's gesture, but then reached out and squeezed his friend's hand. "Of course we will," he said in determination, holding Ishizu's shivering body tightly. "And they will pay."  
  
****  
  
Bakura and Yugi tensed as heavy footsteps approached.  
  
"I see you've both fallen into my trap," Bart sneered, stepping into the light.  
  
Yugi gasped. "You're mixed up in this too?!" he cried.  
  
"You could say that." Bart produced a lasso and sent it flying around the two boys, roping them tightly.  
  
"What are you doing?!" Bakura demanded, struggling against the bonds.  
  
"Just makin' sure you don't escape any time soon," Bart grinned, pulling on the lasso and forcing them to be dragged along with him. "After all, when my plans are almost all finished up like this, I can't let anything spoil 'em."  
  
"But what are your plans?!" Yugi pleaded to know.  
  
"Now that's not something you little dogies need to know," Bart replied smoothly, opening another door and pushing the two of them through. The room was dark and mostly bare, except for several wooden boxes and a saw hanging on the wall.  
  
Bakura cried out as he slammed hard into a crate, receiving a harsh cut on his forehead. Yugi fell backward, clanking his head against Bakura's.  
  
Bart sneered as he watched the dazed youth struggle to regain their bearings. "This cellar should keep you held for a long while. Maybe it'll even still be here after the whole ranch goes boom!"  
  
"What?!" Yugi burst out in alarm.  
  
Bart only continued to grin and then shut the door on them, plunging the teenagers' world into darkness.  
  
****  
  
Joey tensed as the sound grew closer. "Alright!!" he called bravely. "You'd better watch out, you cheap crooks, 'cause we've got you surrounded!!"  
  
A soft light lit the room.   
  
"Joey?" a familiar voice said in surprise.  
  
Joey blinked. "Eh?" The boy stared as Yami Yugi and Téa approached.  
  
Rex had to grin. "Not doing too well tonight, are you, Wheeler?" he remarked. "First you nearly give me a concussion, and now you threaten two of your friends and call them 'cheap crooks.'"  
  
"Oh shut up, Raptor," Joey growled.  
  
Téa ignored their argument. "Joey, what's been going on?!" she wanted to know.  
  
Joey shrugged. "Oh nothin' much. Rex was stupid enough to get himself locked in a closet."  
  
"Hey!" Rex yelled. "You're the one who got trapped in a *wall*!! How much more stupid is that?!"  
  
Joey turned to glare at him. "Why you little . . ." Instantly he had tackled the shorter boy and brought him to the ground. "I oughtta kick you into next week!"  
  
"Enough!" Yami Yugi yelled forcefully.  
  
The two squabbling teens looked up.  
  
"We don't have time for this!" Téa said angrily. "You're both acting half your age!"  
  
"He started it," Joey muttered.  
  
Yami Yugi glared. "You can work out your differences later. Right now we must rescue our friends. They're all in danger!"  
  
"Where do we look for them?" Rex asked, seeming relieved at the idea that the fight was being postponed.  
  
"They're probably all over the house!" Téa said flatly.  
  
Another explosion tore through, making the floor underneath them tremble.  
  
"What the heck?!" Joey yelped.  
  
"There have been small explosions all over the house," Yami Yugi told him. "I heard another one off at the other wing only several moments before."  
  
"Do you think anyone got hurt?" Joey asked, instantly alert.  
  
Yami Yugi narrowed his eyes. "That's what we must find out," he said firmly, walking out of the room and heading down the hall.  
  
"Hey!" Joey cried, running to catch up. "Wait for us!"  
  
Téa ran after him, looking annoyed, and then Rex decided he might as well go with them too. After all, he did want to be informed on what was happening, and besides, he didn't really want anyone to be hurt.  
  
****  
  
Alyson continued to stare at Shadi in shock, tears slipping from her maroon eyes. "Shadi?! Wake up!! Please!!" she wailed.  
  
Mako leaned down to listen for a heartbeat. "He's barely alive," he announced grimly.  
  
Alyson trembled, hugging him in alarm. "Shadi . . ." The Egyptian man was the closest thing to a father she knew and she couldn't bear the thought of ever losing him. "Shadi!! Come on, you've gotta get up!!" She grabbed his hand desperately, longing for him to give an indication that he knew of her presence.  
  
"He can't, kid," Tristan said softly. "But he did this for us, and especially for you."  
  
Alyson clung to Shadi's form. "But I didn't want him to die!" she sobbed.  
  
"He's not dead yet, my little Alyson," her grandmother said softly.  
  
Mako bent over the wounded man again. "He needs help immediately," he said quietly.  
  
"What about Ivy?" Mai said in a low tone.  
  
"He's dead," Tristan told her.  
  
"And Shadi will be, too, unless we can stop him from losing any more blood," Mako said grimly.  
  
Alyson backed up, staring at her red hands. "This is Shadi's blood!" she shrieked.  
  
Mai knelt down beside her. "Come with me, hon, and I'll help you wash it off," she offered kindly.  
  
Alyson stood up shakily as if in a daze. "Shadi . . . please don't die," she whispered. "Please . . . you can't!"  
  
****  
  
"Well, this is the Hollow Willow," Mokuba said ten minutes later as they stood in front of a towering, enormous tree.  
  
Marik narrowed his eyes. "I don't see anything!" he snarled.  
  
A nearly radio device crackled. "This was just a test," the strange voice said. "But of course, why should I have doubted that you'd come? You want to save your precious sister's life."  
  
Ishizu moaned from where she was laying limply in Rishid's arms.  
  
"You only have fifty minutes to save her," the voice remarked.  
  
"Silence!!" Marik screamed, clenching his fists. "What do you want from us? TELL ME!!"  
  
Mokuba looked up at him worriedly. He'd never seen Marik this angry since he'd repented. But of course, Marik had a good reason to be angry. Mokuba was angry himself. He couldn't imagine why this person was delighting in the game he or she was playing with them while Ishizu's life was at stake. The boy couldn't imagine anything more abominable than that. "Hey, you big jerk!" the younger Kaiba screamed now. "Just tell us how to save Ishizu and stop doing these messed-up things!"  
  
"Oh, but that wouldn't be nearly as fun, would it?" the voice laughed.  
  
Marik fumed, feeling the rage boiling in his heart. "Once I get my hands on you . . ." he began, his whole body shaking with fury.  
  
Ishizu looked over at Marik, her blue eyes glazed. She smiled weakly, taking his hand and holding it in hers. "It will be alright, my brother," she whispered. Gently she brought his hand up to her cheek, just content to have both her brothers close to her.  
  
Marik gazed at her, tears in his eyes. Twice on this night he'd had to watch his sister suffering because of the actions of evil people. It wasn't fair! he screamed in his mind. Ishizu is so sweet and kind! She shouldn't have to go through this!  
  
Rishid looked at them both, unsure of what to say or do. He, too, was outraged at the endless events of the night. All he wanted was to be able to get away from this terrible place for good. Not that things would be any calmer in Boston. With their luck, he thought wryly, they'd be involved in another dangerous mystery before the week was over.  
  
"Well," the voice spoke up again, breaking into Rishid's thoughts, "let me just tell you where you need to go next. Open the map and find the location of the Endless Well. Then go to it for further instructions."  
  
"A well?!" Mokuba said in disbelief.  
  
"Oh yes," the voice purred. "It was here in the 19th-century, and it's reported that a girl drowned in it once."  
  
Marik snarled in frustration. "Oh joy," he muttered.  
  
****  
  
Yugi struggled against the tight ropes binding him and Bakura.   
  
"Ouch!" the British boy yelped. "Yugi, your elbow is jabbing into my back!"  
  
"Sorry," Yugi replied hurriedly, trying to move further away.  
  
"Hey!" Bakura exclaimed suddenly. "I remember seeing a saw over at the other end of this room! If we could somehow get over to it, we might be able to cut ourselves free!"  
  
Yugi perked up at this information. "Well," he said slowly, "I guess we'll have to try it."  
  
"Alright," Bakura said after a moment's pause, "now on the count of three we'll both stand up and try to make our way over to the other wall."  
  
Yugi nodded. "Let's go!"  
  
Bakura took a deep breath. "One . . . two . . . THREE!" he cried, pulling himself up. Yugi did the same and the two boys tried to get their bearings.  
  
"I think we're facing West right now," Yugi remarked.  
  
"Right," Bakura agreed. "So if we head to the East, we should find the saw!"  
  
Carefully the boys began trying to maneuver their way across the room, but it proved to be much harder than they thought. First they tripped over a crate that was right in their way and it took them Heaven knows how long to get themselves back on their feet. Then they crashed into the wall and nearly fell down again.  
  
"Oh dear," Bakura remarked. "That wall wasn't supposed to be there!"  
  
Yugi jumped when he heard something clatter to the floor. "I think that was the saw," he said at last.  
  
"I'm afraid you're right," Bakura said, realizing that they would have to get on the floor again and somehow crawl toward it. "I'm afraid this may be a bit more difficult than we thought," he commented ruefully. 


	18. The Poison Runs Rampant

Yami Bakura and Oreo, meanwhile, were wandering into a room that had been blocked off for years.  
  
"Foolish mortals," the thief grunted, stepping around a hole in the floor.  
  
"Meow," Oreo said uneasily, bounding over next to him and getting between his legs. Sighing, Yami Bakura leaned down and took the cat into his arms. Oreo purred loudly, putting her paws on his throat.  
  
"There's nothing to be afraid of, cat," Yami Bakura growled. "It's just an old room." But even as he said this, a dark sense of despair began to come over him.  
  
Oreo flattened her ears and let out a growl of her own, wrapping her paws around her master's neck and clinging to him.  
  
Yami Bakura pulled out the Ring and raised it high. "Let the evil that is in this room depart!" he cried, his long silvery hair flying as he whirled around.  
  
An amused cackle was his only reply as at least a dozen wraiths melted out of the walls and floor and grabbed for him.  
  
Yami Bakura aimed the Ring at the nearest one and prepared to fire, but before he could another one came out of the floor and raked its claws across his arm. The tomb raider gave a cry of anguish and jerked his wounded limb back, narrowing his eyes.  
  
Instantly a black-and-white blur leaped on top of the wraith, yowling and spitting. The wraith reached up to dig its horrible talons into Oreo's little body, but before it could Yami Bakura shot it down and drew a card from his deck.  
  
"I summon the Morphing Jar!" he hissed, allowing the enormous pot to scoop up all of the wraiths and send them to the Shadow Realm.  
  
Once they had all departed, the thief leaned against the wall, breathing heavily and trying to catch his bearings. Normally a fight such as that one wouldn't tire him out at all. What was different this time?  
  
He gazed thoughtfully at the blood dripping from his wound. Could it be that . . .  
  
His contemplating was interrupted as Oreo leaped into his arms and meowed loudly as she saw his injury.  
  
Yami Bakura growled. "It's nothing," he told her, even though he knew otherwise.  
  
****  
  
Seto trailed along after the Ishtars and his brother, dragging a tied-up Lou with him. He had stayed back at the house briefly to capture the criminal, but then had quickly caught up with the others. Now the young businessman was angry.  
  
"I want some answers!" he growled furiously, glaring daggers at Lou and tightening his grip.  
  
Lou grinned maniacally. "Everyone working at this ranch is in on this," he announced. "You won't be able to trust anyone here!" The wicked man paused, a plan forming in his mind to rattle his captor. "Even your family and friends are starting to become greedy, desiring the treasure we're all after."  
  
Seto looked at him in disgust, instantly deciphering what Lou was trying to do. "Shut up," he snarled. "Your lies won't work on me."  
  
"There's an evil permeating through the ranch," Lou replied, speaking truthfully at the moment. "Slowly it infects the minds and hearts of everyone here."  
  
"Even if that's true, my brother would never let it get to him," Seto hissed. "He's stronger than any pathetic evil force."  
  
Up ahead, the others were arriving at the well. Marik stared into it, clutching at the edges so he wouldn't fall in. "I don't see anything!" he cried angrily.  
  
"There's nothing to see," the familiar voice snickered. "I only brought you here in case that girl's ghost was roaming about, but I don't think she's here tonight."  
  
"This has gone on long enough!" Marik screamed, raising himself up and brandishing the Rod. "I won't stand here and be made a fool of while my sister fights for her life!"  
  
"Patience, patience," the voice chided.  
  
"I won't be patient!!" Marik yelled.  
  
The voice gave a mock sigh. "Oh, very well. Come to the cave behind the waterfall. But you'd best make it snappy if you don't want Ishizu to die on you before you get here."  
  
Marik let out a strangled cry.  
  
"Will you be there or is this another trick?" Rishid growled, feeling Ishizu grab onto his cloak.  
  
"I suppose you'll just have to find out for yourselves," the voice said with amusement. "After all, it's not like you have any choice."  
  
"COWARD!!" Marik screamed.  
  
****  
  
Tristan watched as Mako began cleaning Shadi's wounds. "Oh man," the hazel-eyed boy muttered.  
  
"This is worse than I thought," Mako told him. "The bullets all tore right through him. He'll be lucky if he lasts the night."  
  
"But this is Shadi we're talking about!" Tristan protested. "He can't die!"  
  
"Even he is not indestructible," Mako replied. "Any mortal can be vanquished in some way, no matter how strong they are."  
  
Shadi groaned, jerking away from Mako and subconsciously reaching up to clap his hand over one of the wounds.  
  
"However," Mako went on, "I know he's not going to give up. And that may make a difference in his case."  
  
****  
  
Bakura struggled to maneuver himself on the floor so that he could crawl toward the saw without causing any difficulty or discomfort for Yugi, but he found that he wasn't having much luck.  
  
"Bakura . . . I can't breathe!" Yugi gasped, straining against the ropes.  
  
"Oh dear," Bakura said in embarrassment, collapsing over on his side. "I'm terribly sorry. . . ."  
  
Yugi struggled to get air into his lungs. "There must be something else we can do!" he cried.  
  
"Well . . . maybe if we tensed up as much as we could, the ropes would loosen a bit and we could wiggle our way out of them," Bakura suggested, feeling helpless.  
  
Yugi shrugged. "I guess we'll have to try," he said finally. "These are desperate times. Remember what Bart said about the cellar still standing when the ranch 'goes boom'?! He might be planning to really blow it up! And that means the others might all be in danger!"  
  
"Great Scott, you're right, Yugi!" Bakura exclaimed, new worry building. "We must get out of here!" He struggled to get to his feet but immediately collapsed again.  
  
At that moment the door cracked open and Yami Bakura stood there, silhouetted against the light behind him. "What are you pathetic creatures doing?!" he growled, his brown eyes gleaming in the dark of the cellar.  
  
"Yami!" Bakura cried in relief. "Yami, please help us get free!! Bart's going to blow up the ranch and we need to make certain everyone's safe and try to stop him!"  
  
Yami Bakura grunted, but then he came down the steps and untied them both. Oreo leaped off his shoulders and over to Bakura's head, meowing loudly. The British boy chuckled, reaching up to pet the kitty.  
  
Yugi was already running for the stairs. "Come on!" he called. "We have to find the others!"  
  
Bakura looked up and nodded firmly. "Right!" Gently he took Oreo into his arms and chased after the vertically challenged boy. "Thank you for saving us, Yami," he smiled, glancing back at the gruff thief. Abruptly Bakura's eyes widened, catching sight of several deep gashes in his Yami's flesh. "Oh!!!" he gasped.  
  
Yami Bakura glared daggers at him. "I am fine. Do you understand me?"  
  
"Yami, you're hurt!" Bakura retorted as they reached the doorway.  
  
"Mere scratches," Yami Bakura snapped. He knew exactly that it was much more than that, but he didn't find any point in telling Bakura that.  
  
Gently Bakura took the tomb raider's arm and stared at the long slash in the skin. "Yami, that's not a scratch!" he insisted. "I know you're just going to say it's nothing, but I have a terrible feeling about it!!"  
  
Yami Bakura yanked his arm away, wincing as he did so. "Leave me alone!!" he yelled.  
  
Bakura gazed at him heart-breakingly. "Please don't die, Yami," he whispered before going out the door.  
  
Yami Bakura was stunned speechless. He examined the wound in his arm again and then looked after the departing boy. How could Bakura know that he'd been poisoned fighting off the wraiths? At any rate, he had no intention of dying—and yet he knew that that was usually the inevitable result of such attacks.  
  
Oreo seemed to know it too. She came padding back to her beloved Yami Bakura and wrapped her paws around his leg. "Meoooow!" she wailed, looking about as sad as a cat can look.  
  
Heaving a sigh, Yami Bakura leaned down and scooped the feline into his arms, stroking her soft fur. "Foolish cat," he muttered.  
  
Oreo wailed again, placing her paws on his shoulder.  
  
****  
  
Alyson looked up at Mai as the teenage girl gently washed the blood away. "What's gonna happen to Shadi?" Alyson quavered.  
  
Mai gave a sigh and sat down beside her. "I honestly don't know, kiddo," she said solemnly.  
  
"Well, you see . . ." Alyson looked at the floor. "Other than Grandma, I don't have any family at all, and when I met Shadi, it was like . . ." She twisted the strap on her overalls. "It was like . . . well . . . he's been like the father I never had."  
  
Mai smiled softly. "If you've known him for a long time, you've probably seen that he always seems to bounce back no matter what. Shadi's pretty tough."  
  
Alyson nodded, but still looked scared. "I've never seen so much blood!" she sobbed, shuddering. "I . . . I'm just so afraid that . . . that he's never gonna get up." Tears escaped her eyes and trailed down her face. "My mommy got shot a long time ago and . . . and she never got up."  
  
Mai let out a gasp. "Oh . . ." she said at last.  
  
"And I don't want the same thing to happen to Shadi!" Alyson wailed. "I don't want him to die!!"  
  
Mai looked down, trying to think of something she could say that would comfort her. "Well . . . then I'm sure he'll stick around, just for you," she said quietly.  
  
****  
  
"There sure is a big echo in here," Mokuba commented as everyone cautiously entered the cave behind the waterfall. "That messed-up person must know we've just come in!"  
  
Seto narrowed his eyes. He wasn't sure at all whether they'd ever get the antidote for Ishizu's poisoning. It seemed to him that this person was completely sick and twisted without any redeemable qualities and probably didn't even know how to cure the poor woman.  
  
"Whoa!!" Mokuba yelped suddenly, plunging through a gaping hole in the floor. "BIG BROTHER!!!"  
  
Everyone whirled around at the sound of the boy's scream. Almost instantaneously Seto was there, grabbing Mokuba's wrist. "It's alright, kid," he whispered soothingly. "I've got you."  
  
Marik breathed a sigh of relief as Seto pulled his brother up and set him back on firm ground. "That was a close one," the Egyptian boy remarked, looking at his friend.  
  
Mokuba stood there for a moment, breathing heavily and trying to regain his bearings.  
  
Seto gazed at him in concern, then looked up and clenched his fists.  
  
"That was done on purpose," Rishid spoke up, voicing Seto's and Marik's thoughts. "The entire cave must be booby-trapped!"  
  
"Oh, how smart of you to put it all together like that," the voice laughed. "You didn't really think it would be as easy as traveling through the cave to find me, did you? There has to be one last test first!"  
  
"Ishizu may not last that long!" Marik screamed.  
  
"Then you'd best hurry, hmm?" the voice replied smoothly.  
  
Rishid looked down at Ishizu worriedly. "Lady Ishizu, how are you faring?" he asked softly.  
  
Ishizu smiled up at him. "I will be alright, Rishid," she answered, her eyes starting to close.  
  
"No! Lady Ishizu, please try to stay conscious!" Rishid pleaded, fearful for her life.  
  
Marik also turned to look, gripping his sister's hand frantically. "Ishizu," he whispered shakily, his eyes filling with tears.  
  
Ishizu gently stroked his hand and then his cheek reassuringly. "I promise, I will not leave," she whispered, breathing painfully.  
  
****  
  
Yami Bakura was also starting to feel the effects of the poison. The tomb raider doubled over, beads of perspiration trailing down his face as he clenched his teeth and tried to ward off the feelings of dizziness and confusion.  
  
"Yami?!" Bakura screamed, looking at him in horror.  
  
Yugi turned to look as well. "Bakura, what's wrong with your Yami?!" he gasped.  
  
"I don't know!" Bakura wailed.  
  
Yami Bakura was vaguely aware of their voices, but they sounded far away and distant. Even though it took a powerful non-mortal body such as his longer to register the poison's deadliness, the venom's effects rushed through to their final conclusion much faster than they would with a mortal. Now the thief's vision swam and he collapsed to the floor, descending into oblivion. 


	19. Final Showdown

Instantly Bakura was at his Yami's side, his soft brown eyes a picture of horror.  
  
"Yami!" he sobbed. "Yami, get up! Oh please get up!" He shook the thief gently and didn't receive as much as a growl in reply. "Yami, what's wrong?!" he begged to know. "Please, Yami, please tell me!"  
  
Oreo howled pitifully, nudging at Yami Bakura's limp arm. He grunted, jerking it away from her and then moaning in pain.  
  
"Bakura!" Yugi exclaimed, running over. "Is your Yami okay?! What's wrong with him?!"  
  
"I wish I knew!" Bakura said again, tears in his eyes. "He got hurt earlier and I have a terrible feeling that he . . . he . . ." Carefully he lifted Yami Bakura's arm and stared at the slashes once more.  
  
Yugi's eyes widened. "What is that?!" he said in disbelief.  
  
Yami Yugi came up behind him, his violet eyes narrowed in concern. "Poison," he uttered grimly.  
  
Yugi and Bakura, as well as Joey, Rex, and Téa, all turned to stare at the Pharaoh.  
  
"Say what?!" Joey cried.  
  
The color drained from Bakura's face. "It . . . it isn't the . . . Shadow Poison again, is it?" he whispered fearfully.  
  
Yami Yugi knelt down and examined the wounds. Sensing his old nemesis, Yami Bakura tensed and growled as if to say, I don't need your help!  
  
"It's not the Shadow Poison," Yami Yugi said at last. "He doesn't have the symptoms. You can see he's still somewhat aware of what's going on around him. Those infected with the Shadow Poison lose sense of everything almost immediately."  
  
Bakura bit his lip. "What can we do to help him?" he asked pleadingly.  
  
Yami Yugi reached down to pull the thief up. "If there is an antidote, we must find it within the hour," he stated. "Or he will die."  
  
****  
  
Mako sat back, his eyes narrowed as he watched Shadi's labored breathing. "I've done all I can," he said quietly.  
  
Alyson sobbed in protest, hugging Shadi's still form and praying as innocently as a six-year-old can for his life to be spared.  
  
Mai and Tristan exchanged looks. They both knew that it wasn't likely that Shadi would last much longer.  
  
"He's done for," Tristan said softly.  
  
Almost as if in response to him, Shadi's breathing slowed to nothing and he went completely rigid.  
  
Alyson clapped a hand to her mouth and screamed.  
  
Mako stared sadly, checking for a pulse. "He's gone," he said finally.  
  
The Egyptian man's body shimmered slightly before vanishing in front of their eyes. Only his blood and the Ankh remained.  
  
Tristan's mouth dropped open. "Oh man," he muttered.  
  
****  
  
At long last Marik and the others made it to the end of the cave. The top of a huge waterfall was just ahead of them, the rushing liquid crashing against the rocks and debris below. Mokuba looked a bit uneasy, wondering if they were all going to be ambushed and thrown over. Subconsciously he grabbed Seto's hand and held on tight.  
  
A light flashed, illuminating a figure standing on a low platform just to the side of the creek that became the raging waterfall.  
  
"Well done," a female voice laughed. "You've all made it through to my lair."  
  
Mokuba gasped, recognizing the voice. "Lorelei!" he cried out.  
  
"You're the one behind this?!" Marik fumed, stepping forward in rage.  
  
"Only one of them," Lorelei grinned, holding out a vial tauntingly. "Catch!" She threw it hard at Marik, who grabbed it in anger and glared at her. "Oh, come now," Lorelei purred. "You have your antidote. No need to look so cross. Let your sister drink that . . . if she still can, that is."  
  
Marik let out a scream of fury and bent over Ishizu frantically. "Sister?" he whispered.  
  
The woman's eyes fluttered open and she tried to focus on Marik.  
  
"Sister, can you drink this?" Marik asked, taking the cork out of the vial and holding the small bottle up.  
  
Ishizu struggled to speak. "I . . . I will try," she rasped.  
  
Rishid continued to hold her in his arms while Marik carefully poured the vial's contents down their sister's throat. She coughed a bit and then settled into Rishid's embrace.  
  
Marik smiled in relief, taking her hand. "Dear sister," he said softly.  
  
Rishid looked up at Lorelei with steely eyes. "Will she recover?" he demanded, not wanting to deal with any more tricks.  
  
"The antidote works wonders," Lorelei replied. "She'll be alright in a few minutes."  
  
"You'd better be telling the truth," Marik hissed.  
  
Mokuba stepped forward furiously. "What you've been doing is really messed up!" he yelled. "I can't believe what you've been doing to all of us!"  
  
"Why don't you explain what this has all been about?" Seto added, his own eyes narrowed.  
  
"Just a way to lure you all here," Lorelei responded.  
  
"For what purpose?!" Marik growled.  
  
"You'll see," Lorelei smirked.  
  
****  
  
Alyson picked up the Ankh shakily, her eyes brimming with tears.  
  
"Where did he go?" she wailed. "Where is he?!"  
  
No one spoke for the longest time, and then finally the grandmother said quietly, "I'm afraid he's gone, my little Alyson."  
  
The child continued to cry, clutching the Ankh close to her heart. "He wasn't supposed to die!" she screamed.  
  
A shadow fell across the doorway and Mai looked up to see Yugi's Yami standing there.  
  
"We must leave this ranch now," the Pharaoh told her. "It's going to self-destruct in five minutes."  
  
"What?!" Tristan burst out.  
  
"What's happened in here?!" Téa cried in horror, looking in.  
  
Mai looked at Alyson and then at Téa. "Shadi died," the blonde girl said at last.  
  
Téa gave a cry of surprise and shock.  
  
Yami Yugi's eyes narrowed. "This is grave news," he uttered, half-turning and indicating for the others to come with him. "I am sorry to hear of this, but I'm afraid we all must leave this minute."  
  
Bakura, who was trying to support his Yami with Joey's help, looked horrified. "Shadi's dead?!" he shrieked. "But . . . but how?!"  
  
"He was used as target practice," Tristan replied quietly. "About half a dozen times. His breathing stopped and then his body just disappeared."  
  
Yugi turned away, tears glistening in his eyes. It was so hard for him to imagine how anyone could be so wicked.  
  
"Yug?" Joey looked at his best friend in concern. "Yug, are you okay, man?"  
  
Yugi clenched his fists. "This isn't right!" he screamed. "Shadi was a good person!"  
  
"Yugi . . ." Yami Yugi laid a hand on his shoulder. "I know how terrible you must be feeling, but we can't allow anyone else to die. We have to leave before the ranch explodes."  
  
Sadly Yugi nodded. "I know," he managed to say.  
  
****  
  
The group ran down the hall to a secret door Yami Yugi had found earlier. "This leads into a tunnel that runs under the house," the Pharaoh explained. "Come."  
  
Alyson still held the blood-stained Ankh as she was gently guided into the passageway. She looked up at Mako with teary eyes. "I don't understand!" she wailed.  
  
"I don't either, Alyson," Mako replied softly. "Many things happen in life that can't be explained."  
  
They had all barely gotten into the underground tunnel when a horrific explosion echoed above them, rocking the ground and sending them all to the floor in a daze.  
  
"No one else was in there, right?" Tristan said uneasily.  
  
Yami Yugi shook his head. "We used the Millennium Ring to guide us to anyone still in the house, and your group consisted of the only other living beings there. Wherever the others are, they weren't in the ranch house."  
  
Yami Bakura moaned and curled into a ball, the shock from the explosion having jarred him badly. Because the poison worked quicker on non-mortals, he was already more than half-dead, even though it had only been a little less than thirty minutes.  
  
"Yami?!" Bakura screamed, kneeling down and trying to get him to straighten out, to no avail. Oreo tried to lend her support as well, grabbing Yami Bakura's pant leg in her teeth and pulling.  
  
"Leave me alone," Yami Bakura hissed, curling up tighter. He hated for anyone to see him like this, especially Bakura and his band of friends.  
  
"I won't!" Bakura said stubbornly. "Yami, you're hurt terribly and I'm not going to let you die!" Again he struggled to gather the tomb raider into his arms.  
  
"Face it, pal," Tristan said. "He doesn't wanna be helped, so maybe we should just leave him here."  
  
"Tristan!" Bakura yelled angrily. "I'll drag him along if I have to, but I'm never just going to leave him!" He looked down at the Ring, ordering it to lead them in the direction of the antidote. Almost immediately it began dragging him straight ahead. "I think it's nearby!" the boy called back as he was pulled along. "Please, someone get Yami!"  
  
Yami Yugi narrowed his eyes, but knelt down and grabbed the thief firmly. "Let's go," he said.  
  
****  
  
Seto glared daggers at Lorelei as he continued to restrain Lou, who twisted around and sneered at his captor.  
  
"Poor Kaiba," Lou grinned. "You have absolutely no idea what's gonna go on, do you?"  
  
Seto continued to give him a stony look. "Do you?" he demanded.  
  
"Perhaps," Lou shrugged.  
  
Lorelei grunted. "Well, I might as well tell them," she said. "After all, they'll all be dead in a few minutes anyway."  
  
"Whatever you say, my dear," Lou replied.  
  
"I am not your dear!" Lorelei snarled.  
  
Marik continued to glare. "An explanation would be greatly appreciated," he said. "But none of us have any intention of dying."  
  
"Maybe not, but that doesn't mean you'll survive," Lorelei said, still standing on the platform. She paused. "I heard about those visions you had, dear Marik," the red-haired woman said now. "The second one in particular was intriguing to me, because every bit of it is true. The burial grounds, the angry spirits . . . all of that. They've been around for years, and they've caused all the deaths that happened throughout the years."  
  
"A couple of years ago, Lorelei and I sort of made a deal with the spirits," Lou spoke up now. "If they'd help us get everyone away, we'd destroy the ranch. After all, we couldn't care less about that place. What we're after is on the surrounding property. And not on the burial grounds, may I add." He smirked.  
  
"But lots of people actually died here!" Mokuba burst out. "It wasn't just some plot to scare people away!" He clenched his fists angrily. "A lot of us have been in real danger all night!"  
  
Lorelei's eyes narrowed. "Those spirits aren't entirely loyal," she said. "I didn't want my sister to die. Nor did I want Lou to imprison my mother and my niece."  
  
"Alyson is your niece?!" Mokuba exclaimed, his eyes wide.  
  
Lorelei nodded. "And my mother wasn't traveling around as I thought she was. Lou paid people to send those postcards from around the world so I'd think she was just off on one of her escapades instead of locked up in my very own basement!"  
  
Lou shrugged. "She was getting too nosy with her visions and remembering the past. I had to do something."  
  
"Wait . . . isn't Alyson *your* niece?" Marik spoke up, glaring at him and stroking Ishizu's hand.  
  
"You could say that," Lou replied. "See, Lorelei and I are married."  
  
"Only until the divorce is final," Lorelei growled. "I can't stand that man!"  
  
"Gee, it seems like you're perfect for each other," Seto remarked.  
  
Both of them ignored that.  
  
"We were just about done with our plan when all of you people showed up on that crashed airplane," Lou grunted. "So then we had to concentrate on getting all of you away first!"  
  
"Oh lovely," Seto grumbled sarcastically.  
  
Ishizu's eyes fluttered open and she blinked up at Rishid and Marik.  
  
"Sister?" Marik cried hopefully.  
  
The older woman smiled and held out her arms. Marik rushed into her embrace happily and then Rishid hugged them both. "I am fine now," Ishizu whispered, just enjoying being back with her two precious brothers. Mokuba looked on, grinning widely.  
  
"A sibling reunion. How sweet," Lou sneered. "Now you'll get to all die together."  
  
"What do you mean?" Marik snarled.  
  
Lorelei smirked at him. "There's a dam just up ahead from where we are," she announced. "I can open it with this remote control. And once the water breaks loose, well . . . even if you're excellent swimmers, you'll never get out of here alive."  
  
"And I suppose you will escape to safety before that happens," Seto grunted.  
  
"Quite right," Lorelei agreed. "Now let's see . . . I think it's about time for our little showdown, don't you?" She held the remote control up and made a motion to press the button.  
  
Instantly Marik somersaulted into the air and landed squarely on the platform with her. "I don't think so," he hissed, pointing the Millennium Rod at the wicked woman. "Don't trifle with me!"  
  
"Marik!!" Ishizu, Mokuba, and Rishid all cried in unison.  
  
Lorelei's eyes suddenly went blank as the Millennium Rod glowed brightly.  
  
"What did you do to her?!" Lou demanded.  
  
Marik glared at him. "I had hoped I would never have to draw on the powers of my Millennium Item again," he said dangerously. "But I will not stand for these abominations against those I love to continue." With that he forced Lorelei to walk toward him and hand over the remote control.  
  
Mokuba's mouth dropped open as he watched. If Marik had been angry earlier, he was positively enraged now. Mokuba knew that his friend had never used the Rod since he had repented.  
  
"Brother! Be careful!" Ishizu screamed, pointing upward.  
  
Marik glanced up and got out of the way just as a third figure descended onto the narrow platform, right where the Egyptian boy had been standing.  
  
"Going somewhere?" Bart grinned insanely and viciously grabbed Marik.  
  
"Let him go!" Rishid yelled furiously, leaping up and running over to the platform.  
  
Marik struggled against his attacker's viselike grip, his concentration weakening. "Rishid . . . don't come up here," he choked out.  
  
Abruptly two wraiths flew out of the wall, one knocking Rishid backward and the other forcing both Bart and Marik off the platform and over the waterfall! 


	20. Heroes

Ishizu sprang to her feet, a scream of alarm tearing from her lips. "MARIK!!!" she yelled, trying to run forward.  
  
Seto grabbed her arm. "Don't be a fool," he muttered. "You might get swept over yourself."  
  
Ishizu struggled to get free. "What would you do if it was your brother, Kaiba?" she retorted.  
  
Mokuba tugged on Seto's sleeve. "Big brother, he's my best friend!! We've gotta do something!" he wailed.  
  
Seto looked at Mokuba compassionately, his eyes sad. "I would if I could do anything, kid," he replied gently.  
  
Rishid slowly got to his feet, staring over the edge of the platform. "Master Marik!!" he called frantically. The only thing he could see was Bart's obviously dead body sprawled on the rocks below. "Master Marik, where are you?!"  
  
Behind him, Lorelei was released from the mind control and she sat down hard, blinking in confusion and trying to figure out what had happened to her. "Where's the kid who was here?" she asked finally.  
  
Without thinking Ishizu went up and slapped her harshly. "He was thrown over the waterfall when he tried to halt your foul plot!" the Egyptian woman hissed.  
  
Lorelei glared up at her. "That's hardly my problem," she retorted. "So he just drowned a little sooner than the rest of you. I'll still win out and you'll all still die."  
  
"You will not be releasing the dam's water today," Rishid growled, grabbing her. "Master Marik took your remote control with him."  
  
That was when a huge stone slab in the opposite wall started to slide open. Everyone looked up, startled at the sudden sound.  
  
"Man," Joey's voice could be heard, "your Yami's heavy, Bakura."  
  
"It's the rest of them!" Lou cried.  
  
Lorelei struggled against Rishid's powerful grip. "Even if you've restrained me, the wraiths will come after you," she informed him. "Just as they went after your poor brother."  
  
Rishid glared, tightening his hold on her. "They also attacked your own ally," he retorted. "Again showing their disloyalty."  
  
"You have to be a fool if you think they're actually gonna spare you," Seto grunted.  
  
"Oh I don't," Lorelei smirked. "I'll . . . take care of them."  
  
"I see," Yami Yugi's smooth voice rang out as he and those with him emerged from the panel. "Deceit upon deceit and deception upon deception." He stood firmly, his gaze piercing into Lorelei's soul. "And how exactly do you plan to get rid of the powerful wraiths that have been plaguing this ranch for decades?"  
  
Lorelei looked unfazed as she stared at the Pharaoh. "I have a plan," she said smoothly. "Luckily, Lou wasn't completely useless. He figured out a way to conjure the spell we need to be rid of those spirits forever!"  
  
The third eye glowed on Yami Yugi's forehead. "Yes . . . I see it . . . you need the life forces from two powerful beings," he murmured.  
  
"Was that why Yami was poisoned?!" Bakura shrieked.  
  
"Wait!" Téa exclaimed, horribly confused by everything they'd just stumbled upon. "Wasn't it the wraiths that poisoned him?"  
  
Lou grinned. "Or so you think. They were some creatures we summoned who disguised themselves as the wraiths. They can't get rid of our ghost problem, but they can help us solve it. As our helpless slaves, they do whatever we command them to!"  
  
Yami Bakura, who was riding piggyback style on Joey, moaned and tried to pull himself away.  
  
"Let me take him," Bakura said softly, the Ring's pull finally ceasing.  
  
"Hey, he's all yours, man," Joey replied, relinquishing the thief to Bakura.  
  
"He's not any good to you," Lorelei sniffed. "Because of the way the poison's effects are speeded up on non-mortals, he'll die within . . . oh, about five minutes."  
  
"No he won't!!" Bakura screamed, cradling his Yami's shuddering body.  
  
"Can't you get the antidote from her, Yami?" Yugi pleaded.  
  
Yami Yugi shook his head. "The only way I can break the hold is to defeat the wraiths that poisoned him in the first place, Yugi," he replied.  
  
"Shouldn't that be easy enough?" Mai spoke up.  
  
"They let Yami Bakura defeat them earlier," Yami Yugi told her. "Because they'd already done their job, which was to infect him with their foul poison."  
  
Lorelei looked immensely amused. "Well, if you think you have a chance, go ahead," she shrugged. "It makes no difference to me."  
  
"Are you sure?" Seto smirked, glancing behind her. "I'd say that wraith over there is furious that you've been plotting to double-cross it."  
  
Lorelei looked up and let out a gasp of fright.  
  
Ishizu paid no attention to any of this. Instead she leaned over the edge of the platform, her silky hair getting wet in the water, and frantically scanned across the rocks and jagged shores far below her. "MARIK!! Brother, where are you?!" she screamed over and over, her voice echoing across the dank walls.  
  
Rishid, still holding Lorelei so she couldn't try anything else, looked over as well, his golden eyes narrowed in concern. "Brother!! If you can hear us, please give us some indication of where you are and if you are hurt!" he called.  
  
Mokuba watched worriedly. "He's gotta be okay!" he wailed. "He's my best friend! He can't die!!"  
  
Lou only laughed. "Delusional fools," he said insultingly.  
  
Téa tensed as wraiths began materializing out of the walls. "What's going on?!" she cried, backing up. "Or do I really want to know?"  
  
Yami Bakura struggled to open his eyes. "You're being attacked," he growled in an Isn't it obvious? tone.  
  
"Yami, please hold on," Bakura whispered.  
  
"You have four minutes to get rid of them all," Lou informed them, "or else they'll destroy you all—including that tomb raider your young British friend seems to care about."  
  
"We will triumph if we all work together," Yami Yugi retorted.  
  
Rishid suddenly gave a cry of pain as the wraith abruptly attacked him and Lorelei. Ishizu whirled around and narrowed her eyes angrily. "Let him go!" she cried, trying to help Rishid get free.  
  
"Lorelei!" Lou yelled, finally breaking free of the bonds.  
  
The fight continued for three never-ending minutes, with Yami Yugi and all of the others not faring very well against the powerful wraiths. Not even the powerful Pharaoh could manage to overpower them.  
  
"Big brother!" Mokuba shrieked as Seto was thrown back against the wall and slumped to the ground. Angrily he rushed forward, kicking at the wraith and sending it flying. Instantly three more were bearing down on him and the little boy covered his head frantically.  
  
"Leave him alone," Seto said coldly, getting up and punching one of them. Mokuba was thrown carelessly into his arms and then both brothers were shoved back.  
  
Bakura continued to cradle his Yami, wishing he could do something to help instead of just feeling useless. I can't even save my Yami! he wailed in his mind.  
  
"Yami, please don't die," the boy sobbed again, a tear splashing onto Yami Bakura's right eye.  
  
The thief blinked in irritation, his breath coming out raspily. "Look . . . you foolish boy . . . take this. . . ." He indicated the Ring, which Bakura had placed around his neck again.  
  
"But Yami . . ." Bakura stared at it.  
  
"You want to help, don't you?" Yami Bakura coughed up blood, causing Bakura's poor, sweet eyes to widen in utter horror. "Then . . . take the Ring. . . . Hold it up and . . . command it to . . . to obey you and protect your pathetic friends." He gripped Bakura's sweater tightly as he felt his body go rigid.  
  
Bakura stared at him, tears filling his chocolate brown eyes. "Yami," he whispered.  
  
"Take the Ring," he heard a familiar, accented voice say behind him.  
  
The boy whirled around, blinking in shock. "Shadi?" he exclaimed, but no one was there.  
  
A horrible scream met his ears and he looked up to see Mai being held up in the air by two wraiths that were preparing to throw her over the falls to meet Marik's fate.  
  
"Mai!!" he cried, grabbing the Ring from around his Yami's limp neck and holding it up. "Oh, I hope this works," he whispered, praying for it to do so.  
  
The wraiths paused in their assault and looked up as the British boy rose to his feet, his silvery hair blowing out as he stood bravely to face them.  
  
"Ring, obey me!" Bakura yelled. "Help me protect my friends!!"  
  
Instantly the Ring glowed brightly, beams shooting out from it and hitting the wraiths dead-on. Each one gave a shriek of anger as it began to crumble into nothing.  
  
Mai dropped to the floor of the cave, uninjured. She let out a long breath she'd been holding and slowly got to her feet, glancing around at everyone. "That was some experience. Is everyone okay?" she asked.  
  
Yugi nodded shakily, getting up from where he was.  
  
Lorelei grinned. "Well, so you've defeated them," she said. "But can you get rid of the others?"  
  
She had no sooner gotten the words out of her mouth when she and Lou were both viciously attacked by the wraiths from the burial grounds. The woman let out a scream of panic as she and Lou both disappeared with them.  
  
"Hmmm," Seto smirked as he stood up, "I'd say that the wraiths were more interested in getting rid of the double-crossers than us."  
  
"They may return," Yami Yugi said grimly.  
  
Alyson slowly emerged from where she had been hiding with her grandmother, the Ankh still firmly held in her hand. "I'm supposed to keep this," she whispered.  
  
Yami Yugi turned to look at her. "What do you mean?" he asked.  
  
"I heard Shadi's voice," Alyson replied. "He said that I had to hold on to it." She clutched the Ankh tightly as if she thought it would vanish if she let go.  
  
Yami Yugi turned away, his eyes narrowed.  
  
"Wow, Bakura," Téa smiled after a moment of silence, "I didn't know you had such a mastery of the Millennium Ring! You saved us!"  
  
Bakura blushed and knelt down beside Yami Bakura. Yami Yugi had said that if the enslaved wraiths were defeated, the poison would vanish from the thief's body. But had it?  
  
"Yami?" he whispered worriedly. "Yami, please wake up!! Please . . ."  
  
After a moment Yami Bakura's eyes fluttered open and he smirked up at Bakura. "Not bad," he said gruffly, wiping the blood away from his mouth and sitting up shakily. "You did well, Bakura."  
  
"Yami! You're alright!" Bakura exclaimed, hugging him tightly. Yami Bakura grunted in apparent annoyance, but didn't push the boy away.  
  
Téa smiled, watching their reunion, and then turned to watch as Ishizu again looked over the platform's edge.  
  
Suddenly the Egyptian woman screamed, watching as the waves washed an apparently dead body onto the shore below. "MARIK!!!" Ishizu clutched the platform tightly, her knuckles white.  
  
"We must get down to him!" Rishid cried, looking for a way down.  
  
"Hey! What's this over here?!" Mokuba exclaimed, pushing on a loose stone. Abruptly the floor began to change, revealing stone steps leading down to the shoreline far below.  
  
Quickly everyone descended the steps and ran to Marik's battered form.  
  
"Brother!" Ishizu sobbed, gently taking him into her arms and trying to warm him up. "He's so cold!" she said softly. "That water must be simply sub-zero in temperature!"  
  
"Is he dead?" Joey asked bluntly.  
  
"Joey!" Téa said in disbelief.  
  
"He's not dead!!" Mokuba yelled, running over.  
  
Neither Rishid or Ishizu paid any attention to Joey's query. Instead Rishid removed his cloak and gently wrapped their brother's body in it, whispering to him in their native language and carefully massaging his chest.  
  
"Come on, Marik, please," Mokuba whispered.  
  
Abruptly water shot out of Marik's mouth and he began to cough, curling up tightly in Rishid's cloak.  
  
"Dear brother!" Ishizu cried joyously, leaning down to embrace him.  
  
"Is he okay? Is he okay?!" Mokuba demanded, running forward.  
  
Rishid gathered the shivering boy into his arms, holding him close. "Master Marik?" he said softly, brushing Marik's drenched bangs aside.  
  
"Well, he's alive, at any rate," Joey remarked, concealing his relief.  
  
Marik groaned, clinging to him and to Ishizu when she came over. "So cold . . ."  
  
"Shhh . . . it's alright, Marik," Ishizu said softly, taking her scarf and trying to dry his hair. "You are going to be fine."  
  
"Marik?!" Mokuba cried, laying a hand on his shoulder.  
  
Marik shuddered again, his earrings clinking softly.  
  
A bright light suddenly enveloped them all and Kasumi's shimmering form appeared. "You have broken the curse," she told them. "Now my sister and the others can finally go on to their final resting place." She smiled. "And you can all be on your way to Boston."  
  
Joey just stared in disbelief. "But the plane's trashed!" he exclaimed.  
  
Kasumi shook her head. "Go back to it. It will work," she assured him.  
  
Now the angel girl took out a gold rod and handed it to Ishizu. "I believe this is your brother's," she said quietly.  
  
Ishizu nodded in acknowledgment and then smiled as Marik leaned against her.   
  
"He will be alright, won't he?" Rishid wanted to know.  
  
"He will be fine," Kasumi assured them as she vanished. "Thank you all."  
  
Alyson sobbed, tears splashing onto the Ankh. "What about Shadi?" she wailed.  
  
No one knew how to answer her.  
  
Epilogue  
  
When everyone emerged from the cave, the sun was just beginning to come up.  
  
"Man, it seems like that night was unnaturally long," Tristan remarked.  
  
"It was," Yami Yugi said. "The wraiths were able to stop time for a while."  
  
They gazed at what had been the ranch in utter disbelief. The entire place had been torched to the ground and the skeleton was smoldering slightly. The horses and other animals ran free of what had been their prison, galloping over the plains.  
  
"That was some experience," Mr. O'Dover remarked, coming from out of nowhere.  
  
Everyone jumped.  
  
"Don't do that!" Joey yelled in frustration.  
  
"Is that Egyptian boy alright?" Ms. Myrvyn asked, catching sight of Marik shivering in Rishid's arms.  
  
"We should get him where it's warm," Rishid replied.  
  
"Well, we were all looking for all of you!" Joan exclaimed. "We thought maybe you'd gone back to the plane, so we went out there. And it's working fine now!"  
  
"Oh really," Seto remarked.  
  
****  
  
It wasn't long before everyone was back on the plane. Marik had gotten into dry clothes and was curled up in a corner with Rishid's cloak wrapped around him while Seto tried to determine how to work the plane.  
  
"Hey, buddy," Mokuba said, coming over to Marik.  
  
Marik looked up at him and smiled. "Hello, my friend," he replied, his lavender eyes soft, kind, and full of their normal sparkle again, unlike the angry, raged flame from earlier.  
  
"Are you okay?" Mokuba asked. "You really had all of us scared."  
  
Marik nodded slowly. "I am fine." He sighed. "It's Alyson I am worried about."  
  
Both boys glanced over at the little girl, who was staring out the window blankly and holding the Ankh. Since they were in the middle of nowhere, both Alyson and her grandmother were going to come with them to Boston, where they just so happened to have another relative.  
  
"That must be awful for her," Mokuba said quietly.  
  
"We're ready for takeoff," Seto called over the intercom.  
  
In a few minutes the plane slowly rose into the air over what once was the Black Diamond Ranch, its occupants leaving with mixed, bittersweet feelings as they thought about everything that had happened.  
  
"We should be in Boston within a few hours," Seto announced.  
  
"Are you sure you know how to fly this thing?!" Téa demanded.  
  
Seto grunted in reply.  
  
"Of course he does!" Mokuba chirped from where he was sitting in the copilot seat. "Seto's a quick learner!"  
  
Ishizu sat next to Marik, taking his hand gently. Marik smiled and acknowledged her gesture with a little squeeze.  
  
Rishid sat on Marik's other side, glancing over at Alyson. "I can understand her pain," the man said softly. "For it was my own when I saw your body wash up on the shore."  
  
Marik looked down, then laid a hand on his brother's shoulder. "I'm alright, Rishid," he assured him.  
  
Ishizu smiled. "And we are so very glad of it," she said.  
  
Now Joey looked over at Alyson as well. "Hey, kid, are you gonna be okay?" he asked.  
  
Alyson stared off into space. "I miss him," she whispered.  
  
"I know," Joey said comfortingly.  
  
Téa smiled gently. "As long as you keep him in your heart, he'll never really be gone," she said.  
  
Alyson turned to look at her and nodded slowly, tears chasing each other down her face as she continued to clutch the Ankh.  
  
Carefully Téa helped Alyson put it around her neck. "There," she said softly. "You have to be brave. He entrusted this with you."  
  
"But why?" Alyson sobbed. "I'm not a guardian! I can't take care of things like he did!"  
  
Téa sighed. "I don't know why he wanted you to take the Ankh," she replied at last. "Maybe he knew that you wouldn't let anything happen to it."  
  
Alyson hiccuped and then nodded slowly.  
  
Out in the cockpit, Mokuba grinned up at his big brother.  
  
"Wow, Seto! I knew you could fly this plane!" the little boy grinned.  
  
Seto smiled back. "Try the radio, will you, Mokuba? We should try to get in touch with the airport and tell them we're coming."  
  
Mokuba gave him the thumbs-up. "Anything you say, big brother!" he said, putting on the headphones and calling into the radio.  
  
After a moment they heard a welcome response as someone from the control tower at the Boston airport replied.  
  
"Everything's right on schedule," the woman told them cheerfully.  
  
Mokuba blinked. "But how is that possible?" he wondered. "We're at least two or three days late!"  
  
Seto grunted and sighed. "Time must've been frozen longer than we thought," he said at last, ruffling Mokuba's hair.  
  
"Yeah, I guess so," Mokuba said with a blink, wondering what new adventures awaited them in Boston.  
  
Scared feelings began to come over him. They'd lost one of their own on this case. It only made him realize more how vulnerable they all were. And if someone like Shadi could be taken out, then . . . then . . .  
  
"What's wrong, kid?" Seto asked, looking at Mokuba in concern.  
  
Mokuba gazed up at him, not answering for several moments. "Big brother . . . you've gotta be careful," he whispered at last.  
  
"What do you mean, Mokuba?" Seto steered the plane to the right.  
  
"Well . . ." Mokuba looked away. "I don't want anything to happen to you like . . ." He sniffled. "Like what happened to Shadi. I don't wanna wind up like Alyson!" Tears filled his eyes and he angrily blinked them back.  
  
Seto quickly switched the plane back on auto-pilot and turned to his brother. "I won't ever leave you, Mokuba," he said firmly.  
  
"But . . . Shadi wasn't planning to die," Mokuba whispered. "He thought he'd be able to make it."  
  
Seto looked at him seriously. "I can't promise that nothing will happen to me, Mokuba," he admitted. "All I can promise is that I will always be there for you, no matter what. Even if I do die, then I'll be your guardian angel." He smiled softly. "But I'll do my very best to stick around in the flesh."  
  
Mokuba managed a smile as well. "I know," he said, climbing up and giving his brother a hug. "Thanks, Seto."  
  
Seto smiled and hugged him back, so very grateful for his brother. 


End file.
